This is Robert Jeffress. In response to the horrific attack on Israel, I've written a brand new book called, Are We Litting in the End Times?
Go to ptv.org to order your copy. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You've likely heard the saying, the grass is always greener on the other side.
It really is a familiar feeling, right? We can't seem to suppress our occasional bouts of envy, but comparison rarely yields a healthy outcome. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shares how we can replace jealousy with contentment. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Today and again tomorrow, I'm presenting the final message in our brand new teaching series about the Ten Commandments. And so, this is your final opportunity to request my best-selling book called, The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way.
God gave us these ten guardrails to keep us on track, and abiding by these principles will yield tremendous joy and contentment in your life. So please, while there's still time, give us a call, go online to ptv.org, or write us a letter and request your copy of The Ten. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. And then, I'll also remind you that this coming June 15th through 22nd, 2024, I'll be hosting an unforgettable seven-day vacation experience for you. Our luxury cruise ship will be setting sail from Vancouver, British Columbia on June 15th en route to Alaska, and I'd love for you to join us. Maybe you have assumed that taking a vacation to Alaska is for somebody else. In reality, the value of an all-inclusive vacation is quite reasonable. So, go to ptv.org and check out the itinerary, look at our special musical guests, Rebecca St. James and Michael O'Brien, along with comedian Dennis Swanberg, and then determine the best cabin option for you.
The spaces are going very quickly, so go to ptv.org to reserve your spot. Well, sometimes we fall into the insidious trap of comparing ourselves to others. In doing so, we become envious. Well, today we're going to talk about the brilliance of the 10th Commandment, because it's a guardrail that protects us from this danger.
I titled today's message, Control Yourself and Be Content. Who is it that is truly rich? Benjamin Franklin once asked. He answered his own question by saying, who is rich? He that is content. And who is that?
No one, Franklin said. I think he's right. But discontent, a desire for something more or different than what we have, isn't always bad. I mean, dissatisfaction has been the impetus for some great discoveries like America. It's been the impetus for great inventions like the microchip. It's been the motivation for great social movements like the abolition of slavery.
All of that happened because people were dissatisfied with the status quo. But dissatisfaction can also be the foundation for sin. In fact, it's a foundation of just about every sin we've looked at in this series on the 10 Commandments. And I think that's why God saved this commandment for last in Exodus 20 verse 17. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything else that belongs to your neighbor. It's interesting, this commandment was given to people who possessed little to none of the things mentioned in that commandment.
They were nomads, wandering in the wilderness, headed to the promised land, but they didn't have houses, they didn't have servants. But God was preparing them for the future land and he said, when you get into this land of prosperity, understand that the greatest enemy to your happiness is going to be a discontentment with your circumstances. What does it mean to covet? What are we talking about when we say we are not to covet? As I just mentioned, it's not the same as desire. Desire can lead us to godly pursuits. Our desire for food motivates us to work. Our desire for protection leads us to seek shelter.
Our desire for companionship leads us to the relationships we need in life. But covetousness is desire that has gone awry. It is an obsessive or compulsive focus on what doesn't belong to you. It's a form of envy, of greed that can lead to taking from another person what doesn't belong to you. My friend, the Jewish talk show host, Dennis Prager, wrote a book a few years ago on the Ten Commandments from the Jewish point of view, and he writes that to covet is much more than to want.
The Hebrew verb lakmad means to want something to the point of seeking to take away and own something that belongs to another person. And I think this is why God saved this commandment for last. Now, had I been giving the Ten Commandments, I wouldn't have closed with this one. At first reading, I thought God had made a mistake.
He should have closed with something really big. No murder. No adultery.
No stealing. But covetousness, that seems kind of a minor offense. And yet, when you look through the scripture, you see it was the motivation for some of the most well-known sins recorded in scripture.
I just jotted down, just off the top of my head, some of these that come to mind immediately. Genesis 3, it was because Adam and Eve coveted divinity and immortality that belonged to God. They ate the forbidden fruit. Or in Joshua 7, Achan coveted the wealth of Jericho, and so he stole it, breaking the eighth commandment. Or remember Ahab, King Ahab in 1 Kings 21? He coveted the Naboth's vineyard, and so he falsely accused Naboth, he had him executed, and he took his vineyard, violating the ninth, sixth, and eighth commandment. Or Ananias and Sapphira, they coveted, they desired the same praise that Barnabas received for his generosity, and so they lied about what they had given, breaking the ninth commandment. And then think about poor old King David. He always is remembered for that one night with Bathsheba. But just think, of all the commandments he broke that night, and subsequently in the cover-up, he took something that wasn't his own, violating the eighth commandment.
In this case, it was Bathsheba. He slept with her, committing adultery, breaking the seventh commandment. He ended up murdering her husband, Uriah, breaking the sixth commandment, and it was all because of covetousness, breaking the tenth commandment. Over and over again, you find God condemning this burning desire for what we don't yet have. In fact, in Micah chapter two, verses one to two, there is a woe, you find that in scripture, W-O-E, woe, woe, woe. That's a divine damnation, and he pronounces covetousness with a divine damnation.
Look at Micah two, verses one and two. Woe to those who scheme iniquity, who work out evil on their beds. When morning comes, they do it, for it's in the power of their hands. They covet fields, and then seize them, and houses, and then take them away.
They rob a man of his house and a man of his inheritance. Well, where did covetousness come from? I think, again, this is one reason God hates it so much.
Let's look at the origin of covetousness. We find it in Isaiah chapter 14, a record of the very first sin committed. Do you know where the first sin was committed? It wasn't in the Garden of Eden. No, it happened long before that, and it wasn't in Eden. It was in a galaxy far, far away.
It took place in heaven, and remember the story? Lucifer, who was Satan's original name, Lucifer was the chief angel. God had given him charge over all the other angels, but he wasn't content with that great position. He wanted a different position. He wanted God's job. He wanted to be like God in John Milton's Paradise Lost. He imagined Satan saying, it's better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. And we find in Isaiah 14, God pronounces a fivefold indictment against Lucifer.
Indictments are real popular today, but let's look at the original indictment. It was against Lucifer, and he said, this is why I'm casting you out of heaven. Verse 13, for you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the assembly and the resources of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will make myself like the Most High. And because of that, Lucifer was cast from heaven. Now, we have all inherited that proclivity to covetousness, desire gone awry, a burning greed for what doesn't belong to us and belongs to other people. Now, we all have that simmering in our heart, but there are three catalysts that fuel that covetousness until it turns into a raging fire.
A fire needs fuel to keep on and to grow brighter. So does covetousness. What is it that fuels covetousness? First of all, our culture. The culture in which we live breeds covetousness. Peter Krafft, the Catholic theologian said, the world's oldest profession is advertising.
It all began in the Eden when Satan said, eat this piece of fruit and you will be like God. And that's the basis of all advertising. This is what you really need to be happy.
Buy this and your life will be fulfilled. You know, I noticed something, Friday night I was ordering something from Amazon Prime and I've never noticed this before. Now, we love Amazon at First Baptist Dallas.
They carry our ministry products. Thank you Amazon. But I noticed this, maybe you've already seen it, but have you noticed in the logo for Amazon, there's a curve underneath the name Amazon. It's a smile.
And the left hand part of that smile is under the letter A of Amazon and it goes all the way over to Z, the other end of the smile. And the message in that subtle, it's saying, we have everything from A to Z you need to make you smile, to make you happy, one click away from true happiness in life. That's just part of the culture of our age. And that culture leads to dissatisfaction. Here is what you need and since you don't have it, this is why you're miserable. Dissatisfaction. By the way, my wife Amy was pointing out how much social media fuels that dissatisfaction.
People clicking about their luxurious vacation or their clothes and their house and all of this and other people look at it and they say, boy if only I had that house, if only I drove that car, if only I wore those clothes, if only I had that person as my life partner, I could truly be happy. Why hasn't God given me those things? God has short changed me. You know, somebody once said, all sin is contempt for God. And at the root of covetousness is a hatred, a contempt for God. God hasn't given me what I really need.
How does that make God feel when we accuse him explicitly or implicitly with short-changingness? Just imagine for a moment, your kids are off at school one day, you're young kids and there's a knock at your door and you open the door and a stranger is standing there and he introduces himself as a worker from child protective services. He said, we're here to investigate a complaint. You say a complaint?
Yes, a complaint from your children. They say they don't have anything to eat. So you take them in, you're just surprised, and you show them a pantry filled with food. Well, your kids say they don't have anything to wear, no clothes, and so you go and show them their closet filled with clothes. They say they're freezing to death in the house, there's no warmth in the house.
You show the worker the thermostat that's at 72 degrees. How do you feel towards your child the same way God feels toward us when we accuse him of not giving us what we really need in life? In 1 Timothy 6, 8, Paul says, if we have food and covering with these things, we should be content. Do you remember the old Aesop fable about the couple that had the goose that laid a golden egg every day? And they were thrilled with that for a while, but then they thought, you know, this is going too slow. We want to accumulate wealth faster, so we'll just kill the goose, open it up, and take the gold from its inside. So they killed their goose, they opened it up, and there was nothing there.
They had killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. And Aesop gave this moral of the story. He said, much wants more and loses all. That's the danger of covetousness.
And that's why Solomon, in Proverbs chapter 30, verses 7 to 9, said what should be the prayer of every Christian. Give me neither poverty nor riches, Proverbs 30, verse 8. Give me poverty nor riches.
Just feed me with the food that is my portion. In other words, just give me enough, Lord. Don't make me rich. Don't make me poor. Give me what I need every day.
Why? If I have too much, I might get full and deny you, saying, who is the Lord? But if I have too little, I may be in want and steal and profane the name of my God.
Culture leads to dissatisfaction, the opposite of contentment. And dissatisfaction can lead to the third catalyst for covetousness, and that is idolatry. You may think I'm never guilty of idolatry. Idolatry is simply loving something or someone more than we love God.
Is there anything in your life you are pursuing more than you're pursuing your relationship with God? By the way, an idol isn't only something that you may have already. Many times, an idol can be something you don't yet have.
You think in your mind, if only I had that position, if only I had that position, if only I had a relationship with that person, I could be truly fulfilled. And so we make an idol in our mind of what is it other than God that could bring us real satisfaction. In Psalm 115, David talked about the futility of idolatry.
He says in verse four, their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they can't speak. Their idols have eyes, but those idols can't see. Their eyes can't see. They have ears, but they can't hear. They have noses, they can't smell. They have hands, but they can't feel. They have feet, but they can't walk.
They cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them or worship them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no person, there's no possession, there's no position that can satisfy your deepest need other than God himself. And that's what leads to covetousness, culture, dissatisfaction, idolatry. What is the cure for covetousness?
We all have a spark of it inside of us. What quenches covetousness? One word, contentment. Contentment is the cure for covetousness. What is contentment? That word contentment literally means containment. It's a person who is self-contained. That is, he doesn't look to external things for his satisfaction in life. He doesn't tie his joy to the square footage of his house, the model of automobile he drives, the outcome of Friday's game, the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
No, it's internally that he finds happiness and joy. And for a Christian, that is his relationship with Jesus Christ. Listen to Philippians 4, verses 11 to 13. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned, underline that, to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means and how to live in prosperity. In each and every circumstance, I have learned, underline that, the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Why did Paul say I learned to be content? Because contentment isn't natural.
It's not a part of our DNA. It's something we have to learn. Paul had to learn it.
How did he learn it? I want you to jot down Paul's three secrets for contentment. They're all found in this little letter we call Philippians. First of all, contentment is based on a life that is ministry focused.
It's ministry focused. Look at verse 12 of Philippians 1. Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. What were Paul's circumstances? As my old teacher, Howard Hendricks, used to say when Paul wrote this letter, he wasn't sitting on the French Riviera sipping a pina colada. He was in prison. He was facing what could have been his execution.
He was waiting to hear the final verdict. And yet he said, I want you to know, I'm happy about my circumstances, for they have turned out for the progress of the gospel. He says, the imprisonment, my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout all the Praetorian Guard. Even Caesar's guards are hearing the gospel.
And not only that, most of my brethren now have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. In other words, all of my circumstances are turning out to help me meet my life goal, to share Christ with as many people as possible. You see, as my friend Bob Beale says, every life, every one of our lives exists for one of two purposes. Our life is focused on either filling a greed or meeting a need. Our lives are either self-focused or others-focused. Do you know what the goal of most Christians is, what their real focus is in life? Peace, prosperity, pleasure, the avoidance of any kind of pain.
It's self-focused. And that's why adversity like imprisonment or bankruptcy or sickness, those are tragedies because they are detours from most Christians' focus in life. Had Paul had that focus, peace, prosperity, pleasure, the avoidance of pain, then his imprisonment would have been a great tragedy. It got him off the road to what he wanted in life, but Paul had another's focus in his life.
It was to share the gospel of Christ with as many people as possible. And because of that focus, he was able to see how this temporary tragedy was really being used by God for good. Your focus in life is the filter through which you view the circumstances of your life. Somebody has written, if for me to live is money, then to die is to leave it all behind. If for me to live is fame, then to die is to be forgotten. If for me to live is power and influence, then to die is to lose both.
But if for me to live is Christ, then to die is gain. Paul said the key to contentment is first of all a life that is ministry-focused. There's much more I want to share with you on this topic of contentment, so please make plans to join me again tomorrow for part two of my message on the tenth commandment.
And in a moment, David is going to explain how you can receive this brand-new teaching series on audio CD and video DVD. By owning this complete, unedited collection of messages, you'll be able to listen to my series at your own pace, and you can share these timeless truths about the Ten Commandments with your friends and family as well. This would make a great study for your small group Bible study or for your Sunday school class. In presenting this series called The Ten, people have written to our ministry and said, I can't remember the last time I heard a preaching series on the Ten Commandments. Well, you probably know by now that I'm fully committed to teach the whole counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation, and I believe that's my calling in life. These ten foundational truths are essential for every person on earth to understand.
Following them will generate deeper love for God and certainly better relationships with others. For these reasons and more, I wrote a brand-new book for you called The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way. And tomorrow will be the very last day for you to reach out and request your hardcover copy.
So please get in touch with us right away. I'll be sure to send your copy when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Your gifts to Pathway to Victory are critically important and deeply appreciated. Thank you for standing alongside me as we offer light and life to people all around our country and our world.
David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you contact the ministry of Pathway to Victory with a generous gift, you're invited to request a copy of the brand-new book by Dr. Jeffress called The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way. To make your request, call us toll-free at 866-999-2965 or visit our website. That's at ptv.org. Now, when you give $100 or more, we'll also send you the complete collection of audio and video discs for The Ten teaching series, along with a helpful study guide.
Today and tomorrow, though, are the last days we'll be mentioning these resources, so be sure to get in touch right away. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. You could send your donation by mail. Write to P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. Join us next time for Part 2 of the message, The Tenth Commandment, Control Yourself and Be Content. That's coming up Tuesday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.
