King Street Community Church
Broken Tablets Part 10: What You Can’t Acquire, Don’t Desire!
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King Street Community Church
611 King St W, Oshawa, ON L1J 2L1, Canada
Sunday 10:30 AM
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https://mykscc.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/23/responses/newThe 10th commandment …
“What you can’t acquire, don’t desire!” (Yiddish Proverb)
“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the most of everything!” (Anonymous)
1. Our coveting reveals our lack of gratitude.
“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the most of everything!” (Anonymous)
1. Our coveting reveals our lack of gratitude.
Ingratitude is stimulated by our human cravings.
Ingratitude is fueled by our natural tendency to compare.
Ingratitude is fostered by our instinctive propensity to compete.
Ingratitude is fully revealed by our drive to covet.
Craving + Comparing + Competing = Coveting
2. Before coveting becomes a problem, it is first a prompt.
Prompted by Advertisers.
Prompted by our Adversary.
Prompted by our Affections.
Ingratitude is fueled by our natural tendency to compare.
Ingratitude is fostered by our instinctive propensity to compete.
Ingratitude is fully revealed by our drive to covet.
Craving + Comparing + Competing = Coveting
2. Before coveting becomes a problem, it is first a prompt.
Prompted by Advertisers.
Prompted by our Adversary.
Prompted by our Affections.
3. Contentment is the combatant of coveting:
a. Contentment empowers us to celebrate the wins of others.
a. Contentment empowers us to celebrate the wins of others.
b. Contentment enables us to put away the score card and allow generosity to emerge.
c. Contentment enables us to love each other deeply and helps us enjoy the things God has given us.
Action Steps to Avoid Covetousness:
Resist the temptation to adopt a cultural value: ‘net-worth’ = ‘self-worth.’
Take time to enumerate your personal blessings.
Have realistic expectations of life.
Pay attention by thinking about our thinking.
“It is not forbidden to wish to have a house like my neighbour’s house or a car like his or even a woman just like his wife. What is forbidden, I think, is to want his car or his wife, her house, or her husband - to replace the other, not to replicate her. It is alright to want to have a big house. It is forbidden to want to live in someone else’s house or life. I am commanded to be me, not you or her. I am forbidden to covet your place, to wish to be you.” (Menechem Kellner)
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Coveting has been referred to as a 'comparison trap.' In what way can comparing become a trap? Explain.
2. From your perspective, why is contentment so illusive for so many people in our culture? How have you found the experience of contentment challenging?
3. Love is the greatest commandment and the 10th commandment is a directive to avoid spending time and energy wanting to live someone else's life. How does 'comparing and competing' keep us from loving others well?
4. What do you think of this quote below:
“It is not forbidden to wish to have a house like my neighbour’s house or a car like his or even a woman just like his wife. What is forbidden, I think, is to want his car or his wife, her house, or her husband - to replace the other, not to replicate her. It is alright to want to have a big house. It is forbidden to want to live in someone else’s house or life. I am commanded to be me, not you or her. I am forbidden to covet your place, to wish to be you.” (Menechem Kellner)
Resist the temptation to adopt a cultural value: ‘net-worth’ = ‘self-worth.’
Take time to enumerate your personal blessings.
Have realistic expectations of life.
Pay attention by thinking about our thinking.
“It is not forbidden to wish to have a house like my neighbour’s house or a car like his or even a woman just like his wife. What is forbidden, I think, is to want his car or his wife, her house, or her husband - to replace the other, not to replicate her. It is alright to want to have a big house. It is forbidden to want to live in someone else’s house or life. I am commanded to be me, not you or her. I am forbidden to covet your place, to wish to be you.” (Menechem Kellner)
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Coveting has been referred to as a 'comparison trap.' In what way can comparing become a trap? Explain.
2. From your perspective, why is contentment so illusive for so many people in our culture? How have you found the experience of contentment challenging?
3. Love is the greatest commandment and the 10th commandment is a directive to avoid spending time and energy wanting to live someone else's life. How does 'comparing and competing' keep us from loving others well?
4. What do you think of this quote below:
“It is not forbidden to wish to have a house like my neighbour’s house or a car like his or even a woman just like his wife. What is forbidden, I think, is to want his car or his wife, her house, or her husband - to replace the other, not to replicate her. It is alright to want to have a big house. It is forbidden to want to live in someone else’s house or life. I am commanded to be me, not you or her. I am forbidden to covet your place, to wish to be you.” (Menechem Kellner)