Affluenza! - Part B

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Or you could translate it, covet. Because the Lord is in charge of my life, He's my personal shepherd, I don't want anything else.

I don't need anything else. I know He'll provide. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. But you see, a coveting sheep really is a disgrace to His shepherd. It's revealing what I think about how that shepherd cares for me as a sheep. We've all heard that saying that the grass is greener on the other side, and if you spend any amount of time in a rural area, you'll see cattle neck-stretched through the wire fence, lips reaching out, trying their best to eat the grass outside the fence.

And the amusing thing is that the grass they're standing in is just as lush and green and much easier to access. Well, today here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, Skip Heitzigs continues the series God's Top Ten, and this message gives us a detailed look at His commandment, not to covet. And as we prepare today, we invite you to add Skip Heitzigsing to your social media for regular updates and encouragement.

And of course, the hub for all things Pastor Skip is connectwithskip.com, where you can find out all about this month's resource offer. Here's more. Fake news. It used to be restricted to tabloids at the grocery store checkout, and it used to be so obvious, chimpanzee head put on human body. But now, there are entire websites dedicated to helping us figure out if a story, speech, or statistic is true or not.

Here's Skip Heitzigsing with an important question. Is there such a thing as absolute truth? I want you to just think about that question. We want to help you get started in answering that question with two brand new booklets by Pastor Skip, Why Truth Matters and God and Suicide. You see, the Bible makes truth claims, and some of those claims are, well, pretty absolute. But how can you know it's really true? These resources will help you better understand the nature of truth, so you can pursue God's truth in your life. And there are a way to thank you for your gift of $35 or more today to help expand this Bible teaching outreach.

Get your copies when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888. God's 10th commandment is do not covet. Let's find out what that means with Skip Heitzigsing today as we continue the message, Affluenza.

Here's Pastor Skip. Let your conduct be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For he himself said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear.

What can man do to me? There's somebody who is independent of stuff, things, materialism, because he or she realizes the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.

He himself said, I will never leave or forsake you. Speaking of sheep and shepherds, there's a great book I'm going to recommend. It's old. It's been out a long time.

I remember when it was first published back in 19-whatever. It's called The Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, and it's written by a shepherd going through Psalm 23 as somebody who's kept sheep, and he writes about his own experiences. And Philip Keller writes about one particular sheep, a ewe, a beautiful gal, one of his little sheep. He says, one of the most attractive sheep that I ever had was this one. Her body was beautifully proportioned. She had a strong constitution and an excellent coat of wool.

Her head was clean. She was alert, well-set, with bright eyes. But in spite of all of these attractive attributes, she had one pronounced fault.

She was restless, discontented. She was a fence crawler. Maybe that's a good definition of a covetous person, a fence crawler. Now when you have fence crawlers who say, God is my shepherd. I love Jesus. I'm a Christian. But they're always complaining. Imagine what that sounds like to an unbeliever, the uninitiated, looking in and watching the believer.

The unbeliever is going to naturally think, if he's a logical person, why should I follow your Jesus? You're never happy. You're never contented. You're always complaining that you don't have this or do that.

So it's very revealing. Covetousness reveals a dissatisfaction with God's provision. Now some of you who still think that if you had more stuff, you'd be happier, listen up. Happiness is never from the outside in. It's always from the inside out.

And you know what? There's actually been test case after test case for years on this very subject of happiness. People take it upon themselves to study that subject. And people who study happiness have discovered, whether they're sociologists or psychologists or social scientists, they have a word they call adaptation, a principle called adaptation, that says you will always return to a set point of happiness irrespective of your circumstances. So if you get a lot of stuff, you'll always return to the set point. If you have bad things happening, you lose a lot of stuff, you'll eventually reach equilibrium at that set point of happiness.

It's not outside, it's inside. One author writes this, most people believe that if their real income were to suddenly double, they would feel a lot happier. And they would for the first week or two. After that, the happiness would have perceptibly diminished, and within six months or a year, they would only be slightly happier than before the financial improvement.

Interesting. You see, this is why affluenza is a curse. It lies to you.

It convinces you that happiness really is from the outside in rather than from the inside out. It is not. Well, it's also a curse because coveting ruins relationships that you have with other people. Go back to our verse. Notice the whole force of the commandment in verse 17 is in the word your neighbors, your neighbors, or his.

That's the whole force of the command. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, not just any 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.

Seven times your neighbor is mentioned. Here's the point. How are you ever going to love your neighbor as yourself if you're coveting what your neighbor has?

It's impossible. See, here's the principle. Whenever what your neighbor has becomes the object of your desire, then your neighbor will become the object of your disdain because he has it and you don't.

I'll say that again. Whenever what your neighbor owns has becomes the object of your desire, then your neighbor becomes the object of your disdain. Easily proven in the scripture. Just think of King David who saw another man's wife. And what Uriah had, which was Bathsheba, he wanted. She became the object of his desire, so Uriah the Hittite became the object of David's disdain.

And his first order of business was to kill him. Back in 1975, some of you will remember that a girl, a woman named Lynette Fromme tried to assassinate in Sacramento, California President Gerald Ford. Lynette Fromme was part of the Manson gang, the Charles Manson family, they called it.

She had a bad childhood. She was very attracted to the philosophy of Charles Manson and she was being interviewed by the press and she said, what attracted me to Charles Manson was this philosophy, and I quote, get whatever you want whenever you want it. That is your God inspired right. Now, ladies and gentlemen, whenever you think that you have some cosmic right to have something that somebody else has that you don't have, whenever you start thinking that it's your cosmic right to have it, you'll start coveting it. And as soon as you start coveting it, it just messes up your relationship with other people. They become the object of your disdain. Your attitude toward them changes.

Why should they have it? And I don't. In Romans chapter 12, there's a verse of scripture I want you just to think about. I'll say it, you'll recognize it. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

Remember that one? Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Which do you find it harder to do? Do you find it harder to weep with people who weep with people who weep or rejoice with those who rejoice? I'll answer it. It's a lot harder to rejoice with people who are rejoicing than it is to weep with people who are weeping.

I'll give you an example. Somebody comes up and says, I'm just so bummed out. I lost this or I lost that person. My life is really hard. You'll be the first one to say, oh brother, oh sister, I'm so sorry.

Let's pray. You'll get down right down to their level. It's easier for you to do that because it happened to them, not you. But, but, let's say you're in great need. Your car is a beat up old jalopy, should have been towed 20 years ago. But you're driving it. That's what God has provided.

You can't afford anything else. Okay, somebody comes to the second service after eating the pancakes and says to you, says to you, hey brother, rejoice with me. This week, out of nowhere, somebody gave me a brand new car.

What do you do? Hallelujah. Praise God. It's harder for you to rejoice in that rejoicing than to weep in that other weeping.

That's our human nature. Bob James of Paint Rock, Texas gives a great illustration. He said he was out in his yard one day and he put, he put ant poison in a circle around an anthill. He wanted to kill the ants. This is what he said, thinking that the tiny granules of poison were food, the ants began to pick them up and carry them throughout the colony. I returned later to see how well the poison was working. Hundreds of stinging ants were carrying the poison down into their hill. Then I noticed a break in the circle of poison. Some of the poison was moving in the opposite direction, away from the hill. Some smaller non-stinging ants had found this food and were stealing it from their ant neighbors.

Thinking they were getting the other ants treasure, they were unwittingly poisoning themselves. That's exactly how affluenza works. That's exactly how covetousness operates.

Whenever we see someone with more stuff, beware. Because at that very moment, depending on what goes on in our heart, rejoicing or weeping, we start poisoning ourselves. Finally, it's a curse because coveting ripens into other forms of sin. You see, affluenza does not stay a contained virus. It spreads. It affects other things. It's never stagnant.

It always grows into some other form. It is a contagion. See, if your heart says, I deserve a better wife or I deserve a better husband, you might be looking for one or berating the one you have presently. If your heart says, I deserve a better home, then you might think I need to work three jobs and sacrifice any relationship with any meaningful people just to get the stuff.

Or you might pressure your husband into working more jobs because you deserve better. If your heart says, I deserve higher status, then you'll be competing with other people around you. It never stays just coveting.

It leads to other things. Listen carefully to Paul's admonition to his young protégé, Timothy, in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 9. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare.

Did you hear that? It doesn't say, but those who are rich, those who desire, you can be dirt poor and desire to be rich. Those who desire to be rich will fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. How many times have you heard that misquoted? Money is the root of all evil.

Uh-uh. It's the love of money. And people even who don't have it can love it. For which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierce themselves through, with many sorrows. Now I want to give you some examples of people who coveted and it didn't stop there.

It led to something else. First is Lot. Lot's coveting led to selfishness. He saw the well-watered plains of Jordan.

That's nice land. And that coveting led to selfishness. That was Lot. Second, Achan. Remember Achan?

He really was Achan when it was all said and done. Achan was in that first battle of Jericho when Joshua and the children of Israel conquered the land. And God said in this first battle when Jericho falls, all of the plunder you don't get. It all goes to me.

You all dedicate it to me and my purpose. It would be used later on for the tabernacle in the temple. There was a guy named Achan and his coveting led to thievery. By his own admission, he said in Joshua, I saw and I coveted and I took.

Lot. Achan. Here's a third. David. His coveting led to adultery and a murder.

Here's a fourth. Judas. His coveting led to bearing false witness, betraying his master and suicide. It never just stays coveting.

It always grows into something else. No wonder Jesus warns in Luke chapter 12, take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses. That's the premise we began this message with. When I said, how many of you know that things don't satisfy? Things really don't matter. But what does matter is your attitude toward those things. Jesus said a man's life doesn't consist of what he owns in the abundance of things that he possesses.

So, affluenza is a contagious disease. Covetousness is sin. But as one commentator said, it's not just sin, it's stupid.

It really is stupid. It's stupid because it says happiness is from the outside in. When all along, you know that's not the truth. That happiness is from the inside out. Somebody once said there's two ways to get rich.

One is to have a lot of possessions and the other is to have few needs. So how do we get there? How do we arrive there? What's the cure for this virus? That's what we want to look at next time when we take part two of this, the cure for affluenza. In the meantime, in the meantime, maybe there's a note you need to write. Something like, in case of accident, honey, remember it's you I love and not the car?

A note like that. Honey, it's you I love and not the TV remote. Honey, it's you I love and not the job, the stuff, the more. It's you I love. I love you.

The relationships are more important. More than that, maybe it's time to say, Lord, it's you I love and not the stuff. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. You know, Jesus said, what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? You know, that's what you call the bottom line, isn't it? What if you have everything and you lose your own soul? Imagine a person has the biggest piece of real estate, oceanfront property, very wealthy, has no needs, dies, and goes to hell forever. Wow, what a good life.

Really? What profit a man, if he gains the whole world, loses his own soul? The soul is much more important than the stuff.

So where are you with the stuff? Where are you with the soul? Is the shepherd your shepherd? Is the master your master? Is the savior your savior? Are you rich spiritually? Can you say the Lord is my shepherd?

I don't need anything. I trust him. It's the first step toward true wealth. Well, if you're ready to move towards the true wealth that comes from a relationship with Jesus, I hope you'll take time to make that relationship real today. And if you need some direction, we have help available at connectwithskipp.com.

Click the Know God tab at the top of the page and learn what God did to save us. And the teaching we just heard was the second half of Affluenza. Now let's check in with Skip and Lenya and some thoughts about today's teaching.

Lenya? I think the topic of today's study is clever, because you call it affluenza instead of influenza. And we talk about the problem of covetousness, so that fits this message really well. And it almost is contagious, isn't it? Your neighbor gets something new, or your friend gets new shoes, and now you don't like yours, or whatever it is. It takes one commercial, doesn't it?

It does, and my teeth aren't bright enough. Right. Or this, they just come out with a new model of that phone, or that iPad, or that, or that.

Right. So sometimes we've been bitten by this bug of affluenza, and what are some practical suggestions to help us get our lives back on track to purge ourselves of this disease? That's a big question, because you know, Paul, I love what he said, he goes, I've learned to be content. You just don't be content, you got to learn it. And that's kind of a lesson you learn over time and through a few hard knocks, and buying things, spending money, and then those things don't satisfy.

After a while you realize, this could be a black hole. I could sink a lot of money into trying to make myself happy outwardly, and it's just not going to do it. So when we look to the Scripture, we know that contentment is related to godliness. Paul said godliness with contentment is great gain. I love the way Jesus put it, and I remember what a life-shattering truth it was when I first read that Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. And that struck me that the world spends most of its time, self-included up to that point, seeking things instead of the kingdom of God, hoping that God will just add the kingdom as I go. But if you said, if you make a priority, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, everything you need basically will be, I'll just supply that to you. So godliness with contentment is great gain, so that's the best place to begin. Then I would also say that contentment rejoices in the essentials of life. Having food and raiment or clothing with these, we will be content. So if you look around and it's good to take inventory and just stop and go, thank you for that Lord, thank you for that, thank you for this refrigerator, thank you for this glass of water. To learn to be thankful will make us more content as we realize what God has blessed us with.

Then the third thing I would say is learn to regard others. One of the great things that you've started recently, you gave me my own bag for my car, are these packets of food that are non-perishable items that provide a good, wholesome lunch. Our blessing bags.

It's a sack lunch for somebody on the street. When we see a street person, a homeless person, off-ramp of a freeway and they say need food, need whatever, we can give them that and bless them. I think when we regard others, put it this way, if we have loose hands and an open heart, let it flow through us. When we start living that way, we walk away really blessed. It's satisfying, it's content. Something you've always said is that happiness cannot be found in direct pursuit, that it's a byproduct. So often we think those things are going to be the key to happiness, but new things turn into old things until they become vintage things and then they're desirable again. But really, happiness is a byproduct. When we help others, we're happy. When we do other things. I think for some of us, if we would just stop thinking that the next car or the next outfit or the next hairstyle is going to make us happy.

Yeah, there's a cure for that bug if you're bit. Well, thanks a lot, Skip and Lania. This message is part of our series, God's Top Ten. This series opens up the Ten Commandments in a way that's easy to understand and apply to your life. It's a great series to add to your audio library, and you can today when you get all 17 teachings bundled as an audio CD package for only $39 plus shipping.

Or if you prefer to get each teaching individually, you can also do that when you visit the store at connectwithskip.com. Affluenza is reaching epic proportions in our country. So, is there a cure? We'll find out next time with Skip Heitzing here on Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.