It's Never Enough
Sermon
God's Top Ten List
A Prescription For Positive Living
"Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz? ..."
You don't have to worry about me singing the whole thing. First, I can't sing like Janis Joplin. Second, I remember Dr. Macleod almost fainted when John Omerod sang it in Princeton Seminary's chapel. Third, the last song that I sang in worship generated a nasty note. Fourth, like most honest clergy, I'd prefer a Cadillac. Fifth, it breaks the tenth commandment of God: "You shall not covet."
Coveting is the churchy word for wanting and wishing for what somebody else is and has. While stealing is taking for ourselves what our Lord intended for somebody else or keeping from others what our Lord intended for us to share with them, coveting is wanting and wishing for what our Lord has given to somebody else.
Coveting puts distance between our Lord and us because it contradicts our Lord's will for our lives. And when we put distance between our Lord and us, we decrease the level of happiness, wholeness, security, and joy in our lives. Vernard Eller explained it this way in The Mad Morality (1972): "To covet is to want something you can't have (or shouldn't have) and want it so much that the very desire prevents your finding happiness with what you do have and in what you truly are."
We covet because we feel like we're missing out. Or as that great American Alfred E. Neuman observed, "Live within your income and you'll live without worry -- and other things." We covet because we feel like we're missing out.
The irony is we miss out on who we are and what we have when we look at who others are and what they have.
Breaking the commandment is practically ridiculous because wanting and wishing for what somebody else is and has won't change who we are and what we have.
I remember John Robertson, pastor for many years of Belvidere, New Jersey's First Presbyterian Church, telling me about a local businessman who was quite full of himself. He was also quite successful. Every time they'd get together, the businessman would recite the Ten Commandments and then sanctimoniously say, "You know, pastor, I've never broken one of them." This grew a little old with John after a while. So one day after the man's typical recitation, John said, "I know you know the Ten Commandments. And I know you're very successful. I know you're very wealthy. But Jesus said to give away what you don't need. What do you think of that?" And the fellow replied with a straight face, "Jesus couldn't have meant that."
I am reminded of the time John D. Rockefeller was asked, "How much money is enough?" And in a response exemplifying the inability of experiencing happiness, wholeness, security, and joy by wanting and wishing for what our Lord has already entrusted to somebody else, he answered, "Always just a little bit more than I have."
The problem with breaking this commandment is it's never a one thing thing. A person who breaks this commandment always wants and wishes for more. It's never enough. And when we always want more, we are never satisfied with who we are and what we have. That's why breaking this commandment is practically ridiculous.
Breaking this commandment is spiritually insulting to God. Or as R. Alan Cole concluded in Exodus (1973):
Ultimately to desire, and to try to obtain, the property of another is to be dissatisfied with what God has given, and thus to show lack of faith in his love. Further, the envy which this encourages will lead sooner or later to hurt of one's neighbor, and thus is inconsistent with the primary duty of love.
Father knows best. Father knows what's best for us. Father gives what's best for us. Coveting denies this basic fact of life.
There is a simple cure for coveting: look around and look up.
Look Around: Though I'm like everybody else who will struggle with this commandment until the roll is called up yonder, two experiences in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, have helped me to keep this commandment as well as recommit myself to the food-shelter-clothing-compassionate mission of the Church.
I'll never forget the two little girls who passed by our front porch at the start of another summer vacation. I had a habit of giving popsicles and pop to the children in the neighborhood. So despite my continually receding hairline and expanding paunch, I had a good rapport with the children who lived near the church. Anyway, I asked what they were doing for vacation. With unbridled excitement, they gushed in unison, "We're going to Idlewild Park for vacation!"
Even before they left, it hit me. Their entire summer vacation would be a less than ten hours trip to an amusement park sponsored by our church's vacation Bible school.
And people ask why we should give to support the mission of the Church!
I felt okay about the church making their vacation possible. But I felt really bad about that being all the church could do for their vacation.
It brought to mind my first trip to Disney World. It didn't take too long before my pleasure was overshadowed by the pain of knowing some of God's children will never get to go.
That's really sad. If I had the money, I'd ...
Then there was Georgie. Every time I think about Georgie, I want to cry. He didn't have anything. His dad was a wife-beater and child-abuser. He's the kind of guy that most decent people would like to put over their knees and spank real hard. He is one of the two most mean-spirited people that I've ever met. Georgie's mom was in and out of institutions. She meant well. But as my daddy always said, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
Georgie was frail. He had hearing problems. He always looked malnourished. His clothes were always worn and tattered. His shoes ... It's so hard for me to talk about Georgie without crying.
And yet Georgie had a spark within him which could not be denied. Whenever he'd see me, he'd yell, "Hello, Dr. Kopp! Hello, Dr. Kopp!" And then he'd run up to me, throw his arms around me, give me a big hug, and tell me how much he loved me. He wasn't ashamed to love in public or even around his peers.
When our deacons gave him a gym bag, several teachers at school told me how he showed it to everyone and talked about how generous the people were at the church.
Georgie gave me a present one day. It's a coffee cup coaster made out of yarn and plastic. It's on the desk in my study right now. It's the best coffee cup coaster in the world!
It's so hard for me to talk about Georgie without crying.
When I look around, it's hard to covet.
Look up: Dr. E. Stanley Jones said:
Many teachers of the world have tried to explain everything. They changed little or nothing. Jesus explained little and changed everything.
Many teachers have tried to diagnose the disease of humanity. Jesus cures it.
Many teachers have told us why the patient is suffering and that he should bear with fortitude. Jesus tells him to take up his bed and walk.
Many philosophers speculate on how evil entered the world. Jesus presents himself as the way by which it shall leave.
He did not go into long discussions about the way to God and the possibility of finding him. He quietly said to me, "I am the Way."
Quoting a forgotten source, my friend Eric Ritz said:
If a man goes to a psychiatrist, he will become an adjusted sinner. If a man goes to a physician, he will become a healthy sinner. If a man accumulates wealth, he will become an affluent sinner. If a man simply joins the church, he will become a religious sinner. If a man turns over a new leaf, he will become a reformed sinner. But he is still a sinner. But if we go in sincere repentance and faith to the foot of the cross, we will become a new creature in Christ Jesus, forgiven, reconciled, and set free to live.
Joy Davidman wrote in Smoke On The Mountain (1953):
There is, in the last analysis, only one way to stop covetousness and the destruction of body and soul that springs from covetousness, and that is to want God so much that we can't be bothered with inordinate wants for anything else.
Or as Jesus himself promised, "But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (see Matthew 6:25ff).
Jesus is enough.
When we look up to Jesus, we don't need to covet.
Or as Gary Beets, Missouri State Director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, has printed on the back of his calling card: "If we meet and you forget me, you have lost nothing; but if you meet Jesus Christ and forget him, you have lost everything."
Positively stated and experienced, if you've got Jesus in your heart, there's no reason to covet.
Jesus is enough.
You don't have to worry about me singing the whole thing. First, I can't sing like Janis Joplin. Second, I remember Dr. Macleod almost fainted when John Omerod sang it in Princeton Seminary's chapel. Third, the last song that I sang in worship generated a nasty note. Fourth, like most honest clergy, I'd prefer a Cadillac. Fifth, it breaks the tenth commandment of God: "You shall not covet."
Coveting is the churchy word for wanting and wishing for what somebody else is and has. While stealing is taking for ourselves what our Lord intended for somebody else or keeping from others what our Lord intended for us to share with them, coveting is wanting and wishing for what our Lord has given to somebody else.
Coveting puts distance between our Lord and us because it contradicts our Lord's will for our lives. And when we put distance between our Lord and us, we decrease the level of happiness, wholeness, security, and joy in our lives. Vernard Eller explained it this way in The Mad Morality (1972): "To covet is to want something you can't have (or shouldn't have) and want it so much that the very desire prevents your finding happiness with what you do have and in what you truly are."
We covet because we feel like we're missing out. Or as that great American Alfred E. Neuman observed, "Live within your income and you'll live without worry -- and other things." We covet because we feel like we're missing out.
The irony is we miss out on who we are and what we have when we look at who others are and what they have.
Breaking the commandment is practically ridiculous because wanting and wishing for what somebody else is and has won't change who we are and what we have.
I remember John Robertson, pastor for many years of Belvidere, New Jersey's First Presbyterian Church, telling me about a local businessman who was quite full of himself. He was also quite successful. Every time they'd get together, the businessman would recite the Ten Commandments and then sanctimoniously say, "You know, pastor, I've never broken one of them." This grew a little old with John after a while. So one day after the man's typical recitation, John said, "I know you know the Ten Commandments. And I know you're very successful. I know you're very wealthy. But Jesus said to give away what you don't need. What do you think of that?" And the fellow replied with a straight face, "Jesus couldn't have meant that."
I am reminded of the time John D. Rockefeller was asked, "How much money is enough?" And in a response exemplifying the inability of experiencing happiness, wholeness, security, and joy by wanting and wishing for what our Lord has already entrusted to somebody else, he answered, "Always just a little bit more than I have."
The problem with breaking this commandment is it's never a one thing thing. A person who breaks this commandment always wants and wishes for more. It's never enough. And when we always want more, we are never satisfied with who we are and what we have. That's why breaking this commandment is practically ridiculous.
Breaking this commandment is spiritually insulting to God. Or as R. Alan Cole concluded in Exodus (1973):
Ultimately to desire, and to try to obtain, the property of another is to be dissatisfied with what God has given, and thus to show lack of faith in his love. Further, the envy which this encourages will lead sooner or later to hurt of one's neighbor, and thus is inconsistent with the primary duty of love.
Father knows best. Father knows what's best for us. Father gives what's best for us. Coveting denies this basic fact of life.
There is a simple cure for coveting: look around and look up.
Look Around: Though I'm like everybody else who will struggle with this commandment until the roll is called up yonder, two experiences in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, have helped me to keep this commandment as well as recommit myself to the food-shelter-clothing-compassionate mission of the Church.
I'll never forget the two little girls who passed by our front porch at the start of another summer vacation. I had a habit of giving popsicles and pop to the children in the neighborhood. So despite my continually receding hairline and expanding paunch, I had a good rapport with the children who lived near the church. Anyway, I asked what they were doing for vacation. With unbridled excitement, they gushed in unison, "We're going to Idlewild Park for vacation!"
Even before they left, it hit me. Their entire summer vacation would be a less than ten hours trip to an amusement park sponsored by our church's vacation Bible school.
And people ask why we should give to support the mission of the Church!
I felt okay about the church making their vacation possible. But I felt really bad about that being all the church could do for their vacation.
It brought to mind my first trip to Disney World. It didn't take too long before my pleasure was overshadowed by the pain of knowing some of God's children will never get to go.
That's really sad. If I had the money, I'd ...
Then there was Georgie. Every time I think about Georgie, I want to cry. He didn't have anything. His dad was a wife-beater and child-abuser. He's the kind of guy that most decent people would like to put over their knees and spank real hard. He is one of the two most mean-spirited people that I've ever met. Georgie's mom was in and out of institutions. She meant well. But as my daddy always said, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
Georgie was frail. He had hearing problems. He always looked malnourished. His clothes were always worn and tattered. His shoes ... It's so hard for me to talk about Georgie without crying.
And yet Georgie had a spark within him which could not be denied. Whenever he'd see me, he'd yell, "Hello, Dr. Kopp! Hello, Dr. Kopp!" And then he'd run up to me, throw his arms around me, give me a big hug, and tell me how much he loved me. He wasn't ashamed to love in public or even around his peers.
When our deacons gave him a gym bag, several teachers at school told me how he showed it to everyone and talked about how generous the people were at the church.
Georgie gave me a present one day. It's a coffee cup coaster made out of yarn and plastic. It's on the desk in my study right now. It's the best coffee cup coaster in the world!
It's so hard for me to talk about Georgie without crying.
When I look around, it's hard to covet.
Look up: Dr. E. Stanley Jones said:
Many teachers of the world have tried to explain everything. They changed little or nothing. Jesus explained little and changed everything.
Many teachers have tried to diagnose the disease of humanity. Jesus cures it.
Many teachers have told us why the patient is suffering and that he should bear with fortitude. Jesus tells him to take up his bed and walk.
Many philosophers speculate on how evil entered the world. Jesus presents himself as the way by which it shall leave.
He did not go into long discussions about the way to God and the possibility of finding him. He quietly said to me, "I am the Way."
Quoting a forgotten source, my friend Eric Ritz said:
If a man goes to a psychiatrist, he will become an adjusted sinner. If a man goes to a physician, he will become a healthy sinner. If a man accumulates wealth, he will become an affluent sinner. If a man simply joins the church, he will become a religious sinner. If a man turns over a new leaf, he will become a reformed sinner. But he is still a sinner. But if we go in sincere repentance and faith to the foot of the cross, we will become a new creature in Christ Jesus, forgiven, reconciled, and set free to live.
Joy Davidman wrote in Smoke On The Mountain (1953):
There is, in the last analysis, only one way to stop covetousness and the destruction of body and soul that springs from covetousness, and that is to want God so much that we can't be bothered with inordinate wants for anything else.
Or as Jesus himself promised, "But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (see Matthew 6:25ff).
Jesus is enough.
When we look up to Jesus, we don't need to covet.
Or as Gary Beets, Missouri State Director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, has printed on the back of his calling card: "If we meet and you forget me, you have lost nothing; but if you meet Jesus Christ and forget him, you have lost everything."
Positively stated and experienced, if you've got Jesus in your heart, there's no reason to covet.
Jesus is enough.
