Monday, May 19 | Thou Shalt Not Covet

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I'm John Galantis. Welcome to the Clearview Today show. We've got a great week of content ahead for you guys. But first, before we do anything, we've got to start the week off right by introducing you to our host, Dr. Abbadan Shah, who's a PhD in New Testament Textual Criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor and the host of today's show. Welcome, Dr. Shah. It's good to be here. Welcome to Monday Night Football.

I mean, Monday, Monday, Monday. Dr. Shah, how are you doing? I'm doing well. That's good. I'm doing well. Great start to the week.

Looking forward to it. Amen. You know, excited to be here. Amen. Amen.

You know, a lot of people are coming in and off worship Sunday morning. Pastor Greg J from Houston, Texas wanted to check in with us. Greg J. The J of course stands for Greg Jennings, the hardest hit in safety in the league. Let's go into the mind of Greg Jennings. Do you remember that?

No, I don't remember. There was a, there was a, well, anyway, Greg Jennings from the Green Bed Packers writes, Hey, Dr. Shah, loving the show. Shout out to you from Houston, Texas, Pine Grove Baptist Church.

We love the show. Keep up the good work, Pastor Greg Jennings. That's great. Great to hear from you. Amen. Thank you for listening to the show. Thank you for following along. I'll notice a lot of pastors are the ones listening.

Yeah. We, we, I don't know that we ever had any particular audience in mind, but I think when we started, we envisioned just the average Christian, right? A lot of people who listen, at least, or at least what our demographics are telling us, are there people in the ministry, which I guess makes sense. Well, it's great because people get to benefit from your experience. I mean, we get the privilege of working alongside you, but people from all over the country, all over the world now get to benefit from your experience, both in the ministry, in the school system, get to benefit from your dad's story, and then hear how you have navigated Clearview from a handful of people to where we are today. Thank you. Thank you. To God be the glory. He's helped me more than I can say, just the way he has brought people into my life, just the way he's brought information into my life.

It's just amazing. Sometimes I think about it like, why did I make that decision? How was I able to think clearly in that, in that situation or crisis? And it's because of God, supernaturally, sovereignly setting me up in a way that I can do that. So I can glean wisdom from people or books or whatever.

And so I give God the glory for that, where we are today. You told me something one time, a long time ago that has stuck with me and I've been thinking about it more and more in the context of like this show and people who just have a platform in general. Like you told me once, like, I don't have all the answers in life. I'm not like an expert at living to where all, everything I say to do is a hundred percent gospel correct. But God has placed me a few steps ahead, just in life.

You know what I'm saying? Like you've lived a lot more, you've pastored for much, much longer than a lot of pastors who are listening to the show. And so your experience has put you a few steps ahead to where you are in a position to speak a little bit of wisdom based on what God has taught you.

That's right. That's part of leadership is not that you have all the answers, is that you have enough understanding and experience so that you can predict what's coming. That's what you're doing. Leadership is helping people see what's in the future and which way to go.

That's part of leadership. Amen. Amen. You know, people listening out there might have a case of the Mondays, you know, for us, the Mondays are, the Mondays are pretty good. We're starting off the week, right?

Starting off strong here at the Clearview, today's studio. But if you got a case of the Mondays out there, I think I got something in my back pocket that might help you make it a little bit better. It's time for million dollar Monday. So I million dollar Monday. This is one of our favorite segments on the show.

I got to say, I cheated a little bit last night. I let, I let Dr. Shah know this one ahead of time. Yes.

But this one was really funny to me. I just wonder if this means you have a million dollars in your back pocket. I've got the check ready to go.

It is, it is already pre-written out with my wife's joint checking account information on it. Dr. Shah, for one million dollars. Okay. Any job interview that you ever conduct in your life. And Ryan, this one too, if you ever in the position where you have to conduct an interview, even if it's just like a, like someone coming in to volunteer or someone coming in for like leadership under you, where you have to interview them, you have to ask the following question. Would you say that you smell better, worse, or the same as you do right now?

You get a million dollars, but you have to ask that question. Ask that person, do you smell better, same or worse than you do right now? I mean, I can do better. What if I just walk into every interview and saying, you stink. We're going to continue with the interview, but I got to let you know right now that it's important that we get this out of the way.

Literally you stink. If you do that, I'm going to give you two mil. I'll take it. Oh yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

Absolutely. Some people will laugh. Some people will cry.

Some people will be angry, but Hey, I have $2 million. That can tell you a lot that you need to know about a person. Like they could be like me. Like if someone said that to me during an interview, I would laugh. I would laugh it off and be like, Oh man. Then I'd go home and cry, cry, cry. I'm going to lay awake.

And I just stared at the shower and just eat ice cream until I fell asleep in the shower. Well, yeah. So go in the interview and just, you stink 2 million. One final question I have in the interview is would you say that you smell better in general, you smell better, worse, or the same. It just to mess with their mind olfactory presentation. Is that normal?

Just to mess with their minds a little bit, like just something to throw them off. A hundred percent, but million dollars, a hundred percent. How do most, how do most interviews go with you Dr. Shy?

Like do you typically, do you typically have that problem or do people usually put their best foot forward in an interview? It's changed over the years. At one time it was very formal or more on the formal side, but I would say in the past 15 some years, it's become quite informal where people come in, mostly young people, and they're not going to be dressed up in suit and tie. They're not going to be, you know, very proper. It'd be more like, Hey, I'm a friendly guy.

I'm really a nice person. So they, right from the get go suit ties are associated with being sort of hard line and casual clothes are looked upon as more softer, gentler person. Gotcha. So right there, there's a difference in how it used to be. And then also the interview process is not as much, what can I do for your company? Now it is, what can you do for me?

I'll come work for you, but what can you do for me? How do you factor that in knowing that? How do you factor that in to your, to your like employment interviews or even just like interviews with people who want to do ministry? I look at interviewing people as, especially if they're from the younger generations, we're talking about the end of millennial and really gen Z, gen alpha is not ready to work.

But this group, which is the end of generation IY and generation Z, that's what we're talking about here. I like to see it as what do you need that I can help you with? Where can I invest in you or help you achieve your dream?

And in the process, we can also achieve our dreams together. So if a person comes in and they're academically minded, then I'll be looking more towards how can I invest academically into your life and help you maybe with books, information, understanding that will help you become a better theologian. Is that a learned leadership trait or is that something that you kind of have naturally, is there something that clued you into that interview shift? Yeah, because nowadays it's more about what can you do for me rather than what, how can I better or improve this organization, institution, church, company. Now it is like, what can you do for me? So you lean, you chose to lean into that rather than say, no, no, no, you're asking the wrong questions.

You should be asking how you should, how you can help. Yeah, I decided to lean into it. So I often look at it like, okay, this person wants me to encourage them. So yeah, I'll be glad to encourage you as long as you are going to now invest more in this business or this church. But if the person is looking more for direction in life, I'm looking for direction, I'm looking for some guidance.

Okay, I'll help you guide you. Sometimes I'll be tough on you, but then you need to reciprocate. Right, right. But for 2 million, you would 100% let them know, even if they don't stink, you'll let them know. I mean, for 2 million, yeah, absolutely.

Even if it's a young lady, you'll let her know? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, absolutely.

Right now. Well, I've got a couple of checks to write. That's going to take a toll on my pocket. Dr. Shaw, while I'm writing those checks, any weekly wisdom, our weekly wisdom segments, people are really enjoying. There's a lot of application that's to be had here on the Clear View Today show.

We're starting out Monday. What are some weekly wisdom you have for us? So it doesn't take me too long to explain this because it's just a nugget of wisdom. Sometimes we think certain transitions in life are overnight.

Changes in life are overnight. And that is not the case. Between those two peaks, there is a big, big, vast, wide valley.

But when you're looking at it from one angle, which is like the peaks are directly in front of you, lined together, it seems almost like one after the other. Now, of course, you know, we can also apply that to theology, which is, you know, the Kingdom of God is here. But then again, there's a gap. There's a second coming. We're still waiting on that. In daily life, you can also take that wisdom to heart, which is time. It takes time to develop.

It takes time to get to the destination God has for you. A good example of that is in Second Samuel, Chapter three. What we find so far is that Saul is dead. Jonathan is dead, right? They have been buried, the heads were chopped off, and then some of the valiant men came, buried him from Jebesh Gilead, and David commended them. And now some in Saul's family are trying to continue that dynasty. Saul's dynasty.

They want to keep going. Even though Jonathan is dead, who was Saul's handpicked successor, he is dead. But then there were other sons in the family who felt like, oh, maybe it's our turn. We need to prop up dad's kingdom.

We cannot let this pass away because if it falls apart, we're all going to lose. Which outside of God's control, like his will, that's not unreasonable for them to think. Like if their father was the king, it makes sense. That sounds right. That lines your tracks.

Yeah, one of us should be successful. But God had already made a promise with King David or David that he would be the next king. Samuel knew that. Of course, David's family sort of had an idea this was happening. But I think the word was traveling that David was going to be the next in line. Even Saul knew that. So at one point when David, you know, when he's sneaked into the camp and he took away his javelin, his pitcher, that's when Saul says one day, you know, God's going to raise you up.

He's going to establish your family. Even Saul was acknowledging that David was going to be the next king. But what is very interesting to me is that Saul is dead. Jonathan is dead.

You would think, oh, yeah, very simple. Saul's dynasty is over. David's dynasty is now on the throne.

That's the cleanest, simplest way. But that's not what it says here. Listen to second Samuel, chapter three, verse one. It says, now there was a long war, long war. Oh, no.

That gets me tired. Just reading that there was a long war. It didn't say battle. Battle is like a one time fight. War means there are series of battles over years.

Wow. So now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. But David grew stronger and stronger and the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.

The whole point here is that this was not an overnight process. This was a gradual process where David became stronger and stronger and Saul became weaker and weaker. Or Saul's house, because Saul is already dead.

Saul's house became weaker and weaker. Great lesson there for us. Sometimes we want things to happen just like this. I want it now.

I want it now. And God says, no, there's going to be a long war. And that war could be in the context of the church. You're fighting to establish this ministry. Sometimes it can be in the context of a career, a business, a political work that you're doing. It seems like, man, it should have been a success by now.

But it's a long war. There are times in life where I've had to learn that lesson. That's a hard lesson for me to learn specifically, because I know that I don't have just one flaw. I don't believe people have a key flaw. But if I had a key flaw, I would say it's probably impatience.

It's just one of many, really. But I know that's the one that I struggle with the most. And it isn't that I was tricked into thinking the Christian life should be simple and easy.

I'm just an impatient person. That's something I've struggled with my entire life. And I think working here at Clearview has really, really helped me.

It hasn't solved it, but it has really helped me. And Dr. Joe, you said something in one of your sermons that some sins you will struggle with your whole life. I don't know if I'd say I've made peace with that sin of impatience or that flaw of impatience, but I definitely have come to accept that I think that's one I'll struggle with for life.

And so I love this wisdom because it is in the day-to-day. In a way, it makes it comforting though to think like, gosh, I'm still struggling with this. I'm still dealing with this. I feel like I haven't made any progress. But to know that if you're faithful to God and you're sitting under good biblical preaching and you're doing what you need to do in your personal walk with God, struggling with that sin does not mean that you are somewhere way far off the beaten path. You're totally disobedient to God and God just left you to your own devices. It's just, this is part of the daily Christian life is daily submitting to the work of the whole spirit. Becoming stronger and stronger and the enemy's kingdom is becoming weaker and weaker.

And that is a gradual long-term process, not an overnight spectacle. That sort of kind of plays into today's verse of the day. We've been reading so much out of the book of Romans. We've been talking so much about this war, talking about this war between Saul and David and their houses, but talking about the war that goes on within us. Today's verse of the day actually comes to us from Galatians 5 16.

It says, I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The spirit and flesh having a war within us. These two forces that are pulling at us. Which one are we going to submit to? Which one are we going to give in to?

And ultimately which one will have the victory? Well, I mean, even Paul talks about, I've got this struggle going on inside of me. I think, Dr. Shaw, you just preached on that last weekend where all these things that I know I should be doing, I don't do them. And all these things that I hate, that my soul hates, that's what I end up doing. And I think I said this during our worship time, I've never related to a verse more. I've never related to a verse more where like all these things that I hate, that my soul knows to hate, I just end up doing them. And I get confused.

I got like the shocked Pikachu face every time. Sometimes you look at Paul and you're like, wow, this guy, and rightfully so, is just a giant of the faith. I mean, wow, just the deep, rich theology in Romans.

But then he drops a line of that and you're like, oh, there I am. And it's crazy because I think at the heart of every Christian is a desire for peace. And yet a lot of times what we end up with is internal struggle. And so I would say Romans chapter eight is very instrumental in understanding how this all works out, how this process is. It says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. And I explained this last time when we talked about the flesh versus spirit battle, how you are dead.

Okay. Indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So our body of sin is done away with, but the spirit lives on. So now there is a spirit of sin that is in us. Our body is still there, but if you really read scripture and let scripture be the final authority, that body now belongs to Christ. Because we're in this world, we are going to die and physically our body will seize one day. But that body now, starting now, belongs to God. And that's why it even tells us, do not let sin reign in the immortal bodies, that you may obey it in its lust.

They're off. Right. So any vestige of sin, any place where there's anger, bitterness, envy, adultery or adulterous thoughts, one of the biggest ones is covetousness. In fact, Paul in this very passage actually addresses the sin of coveting. He doesn't address lying, cheating, any of that. He doesn't address adultery. He addresses, if he had to pick an example, it would be coveting. So if I may show it to you right here, we can kind of, let me pull it up right here in Romans chapter seven in verse seven. What shall we say then? Is the law sin?

Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. We understand all of this, right? Paul is talking about the law. And the only reason he's bringing up law in Romans seven is because even after we're saved, master sin, master death, master flesh, they still come after us.

And this time they even use the law against us, right? They try to get us to live the Christian life by trying to keep the law. So Paul brings up the law here before you're not under law, but under grace. Previously law was our guide. Previously law was sort of something to hem us in, to keep us corralled. But now that you are not under law, but under grace, you don't need the law to corral you. Law is still good. Law still is the way to a blessed life, but it's not there to hold us in place. We don't need the chains or the fetters of the law to keep us straight.

The Holy Spirit is there for us. But the enemy, sin, flesh, death will still try to use the law against us. That's why Paul brings this up in Romans chapter seven. He says, I would not have known sin except through the law. Is the law sin?

No, the point is no. And then he hones in on one sin and that sin is covetousness. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law has said you shall not covet. Again, keep in mind, he doesn't get into, thou shall not commit adultery. There's nothing about honoring your father and your mother. There's nothing about remembering the Sabbath. There's nothing about do not take the Lord's name in vain. Do not murder.

Nothing. It's covet. I can assume that's on purpose. On purpose because covetousness is at the root of our sin problem.

It started with Adam and Eve. True. Yeah.

Because if you think about the sin that he tempted Eve with, what was the question, what was the statement that Satan made to convince Eve? He knows that you'll become like him. He doesn't want you to have it because you'll be like him. Right.

I can find the exact word if you want. That's exactly. Did God really say that you shouldn't do this? Right. But then even beyond that, what he says to her is, Genesis chapter three, it says, you will not surely die for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. You will be like him means you're going to be like him. So he appealed to the spirit of covetousness in her.

Yes. And there's no reason to assume otherwise because they had food. You know what I mean? They had all the beauty they could ever need. So it wasn't like she was hungry and wanted to eat. It was only the covetousness. He tempted her with something that she didn't have.

Maybe it was lunchtime there and she was hungry and she didn't want to walk across the pond and get another fruit. Maybe it was that, but I think it was really covetous. And by the way, that's the same sin that got Satan into trouble because he no longer wanted to take the praises up to God. He wanted the praises for himself.

So, so let's go back here because this is very important. Unless the law has said you shall not covet, but sin taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil, desire, desire, desire. That's part of covetousness for apart from the law, sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death for sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. So again, what Paul is saying here is very, very, very important. The law is not the problem, but law comes in and thou shall not covet is now looked upon as limiting and God holding out on something good for your life. And so all of a sudden you have a desire to be God. It's like, it's like God is saying, do not covet because coveting is not good. Sin will come in and say, he wouldn't say that unless he had something really good. He was holding out.

He's holding out on you. But it's not the law thou shall not covet. It's not the law producing that it's sin producing it, pointing to the law and saying, Hey, look, he wouldn't have said that. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, the law is how we know what covetousness is. Right. Because this is such a good thing. Cause if it wasn't a good thing, he would not have said, leave it alone. Right.

And why is it that only he gets to enjoy the good thing? Yeah. That's crazy to me that they, he tempted with something.

So seems like crazy. Like really that's for that they fell or you ever thought Adam and Eve fell because they both lusted or she lusted after some other man. Right.

Right. Or, um, it was a power, power. I want power. I want all the power to live my life the way I want to, you know, you would have had that.

Well, it's simply, you have something I want. That is such a powerful realization when it comes to recognizing sin in our own life. If you trace all sin back, it comes from covetousness. It comes from desire for something that we don't have. And somebody else has it.

Right. And we want it. And I want it. And it's like you said, uh, I think this was, this was a quote from a movie one time. I won't say the movie, but it was, we covet what we see every day. You know what I mean? Like the things, cause you said it yourself, like it was so crazy.

It was just that. And a lot of times the things that I covet, if I tell someone else, I really want that. They say, really for that, look what you have, look at the family you have look at. And it's like, I know all that's true, but I really want that. And to someone else's eyes, it seems foolish because it is foolish. And you had a, you had a series on this one time where you talked about how senseless and how foolish sin actually is. Cause when you try to explain my sin and my covetousness to someone, they're like that you really are willing to throw your life away for that. You're married away from that. It's foolish.

But if you think about even a toddler, what is one of the first things that they do that we call sinful? Mine. Mine.

I am not going to give this to you. This is mine. My two boys. Oh, go ahead. And if you have something I'm going to take it because it's mine. That's right.

Yeah. You were playing with that, but it's mine now. My two boys.

I'm not just saying this to be funny. They're throwing hands over Play-Doh. They're fighting with fists over Play-Doh.

And it's not the one that I thought. I thought it would be Holden beating up on Gavin. Gavin is like, that's my Play-Doh.

Holden grabs the Play-Doh. They start throwing fists. I didn't teach them how to fight. I'm not a fighter.

Like, you know, y'all know, I'm not a physical violent guy. My two sons will fight over Play-Doh. I'm like for that, that little lump of green waste y'all are going to fight y'all are brothers. And they say there's no such thing as original sin. There you go.

That's funny. I'd like thinking about even like the Cain and Abel thing, like being, even being brothers, be like, that's my brother. That's my, that's my flesh and blood brother is not enough.

I will fight you over Play-Doh. Yeah. And I mean, think about it. That's also covetousness because God accepted Abel's offering and did not accept Cain's offering. And God told him, if you do right, wouldn't your offering be accepted? Yeah.

But it's like, no, I want what he got, but I'm not going to give away what I have. Right. Yeah.

That's wild. And sin came in and it's to the point they killed each other. Yeah.

That's how we get a little bit of time left. And when people are thinking about their lives, how do you help someone practically fight against this spirit of covetousness that we all seem to have? The truth shall set you free. That is a big part of the Christian life.

Truth. I tell in our messages many, many times as guys, people, you know folks, I will say something like you don't understand how important it is that you see Christianity as a thinking faith. This is not just a religion. These are not just a bunch of rituals. It's not hyping up your emotions. You have to understand understanding is a huge part of our faith.

That's right. So once you understand, you're able to reject sin and understand what you're doing is sin. Understand that the power behind it, understand the motivation behind it, and then turn away from it because now you see, wow, is this as simple as that? That I want what you have.

I mean, think about it. If I were to sit here and go, uh, I want that watch. I want the watch that John has. And man, when he turns his back, I'm going to hit him over the head and take his watch. I'm going to take his watch.

Imagine if I were to do that right now, you'd be like, I'd be like, look man, just take this watch. This watch doesn't even work. Does it work? No, it doesn't work. Okay. It looks good though. It looks nice. My sister got it for me. It does not work.

It does not function. I mean, you'd be like, for this, you're going to kill me. Why don't you just take it? Yeah. You can have it. Yeah. Or I'm going to call the police on you.

If you don't back away from me, you know, we'll do something. You're right. Right. But that's as simple as who we are.

That's exactly right. Coveting whether towards God or towards each other. So helpful and understanding ourselves and understanding our sin life and how we ought to approach the things that God has blessed us with and not coveting things that someone else has. Amen.

Amen. Guys, make sure to join us tomorrow. Same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview Today Show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that you can support us on iTunes. If you want to re-listen to the show or share it with a friend and you can always support us financially at clearviewtodayshow.com. John, what do you want to leave the listeners with today? Well, we wanted to say you can also support us financially on pray.com. If you're listening on pray.com right now, thank you for listening. If you have not followed Dr. Shah yet, we are trying to get to 5k followers before the end of this week. It's already Monday, so you've already got a head start.

Please, please, please go and follow Dr. Abbadan Shah. You can also support us right there on his page. We are going live on May 23rd.

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