I Want That!

1 John 2:15-17

Exodus 20:17  “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.  You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

    We have made it to the last of the Ten Commandments.  We have been learning all the various ways that we show by our lives that God doesn’t have first place in our life.  Today’s passage once again shows how our focus is easily taken off God.

    John hits the nail right on the head with the first line in our passage of the day – “Do not love the world or anything in the world.”  In its most basic form covetousness is the love of things.  This commandment is talking about loving something other than God.  It is knocking Him off of His top spot and focusing on something other than Him.

    Coveting isn’t just merely saying, “Oh, I like that!”  It is more along the line, “I want that and I want it NOW!”  This is being so obsessed with something or someone that you just can’t focus on anything else and when you get it you find it isn’t enough.  It is craving and seeking more and more and never being satisfied.  In other words it becomes a god to us.

    That is what we have found about all these commandments, isn’t it?  We are finding that all these areas are places that we are likely to break the first commandment, replacing God almighty with these gods.  It all comes back to the fact that He has to be our one and only and if He isn’t, then we are guilty of adultery and idolatry.

    This is the basis of worship.  We can’t worship God and anything else, no matter how good those other things are.  For example we know that God created marriage but to put our spouse before God is making a god of them.  We know that God gave us parents but if we put them before the Lord, then they become our gods.  So the question comes to us once again, who or what do we worship?  How we live our lives tell the world who we worship whether we admit it or not.  Unless we are fully surrendered to God we will find ourselves falling into the traps of all these other gods.  Who is your choice of God?

Making It Personal

    Have you ever found yourself very focused on something other than God?  Did it become a problem with your relationship with Him?  Which commandment speaks to the area you most struggle with when it comes to being pulled away from God?

Making It Personal Kids

    Can you remember all 10 of the commandments?  Who wants us to obey the commandments?  Memorize them so you never forget them.

Closing Prayer

    Father, thank You for loving us so much that You want us to know how to live.  Please help us remember each of these commands before we break them so that we can keep You as the God of our lives.  In Jesus’ name, amen.