The Sneaky Motivation of Covetousness

Passage: Ephesians 4.17-24; 5.3, 5

Date: January 29, 2023

Now that we are a few sermons into this series, we will first revisit the intended outcomes and marvel at how we are already experiencing so much fruit from trusting and obeying God's Word thus far.

The topic of this sermon will be covetousness. Although we hardly ever use the word, covetousness is one of the more dominating sins that we commit and is the motivation behind so much of our lives including work, how we engage in social media, how we view finances, etc.

We will look at covetousness through the lens of the death, resurrection, and life of Jesus Christ. It is only through what Christ has done that we can have the power to overcome the pervasiveness of this sin. More specifically, we see that covetousness comes from the futility of the mind and a darkened understanding. That is, our minds succumb to the lies of covetousness. Therefore, instead of living our lives with the motivation of the liberating power of the truth of the gospel, we live our lives with the motivation of the enslaving power of these lies. However, it is important to understand that these lies are always intertwined with truth; in fact, they were true when we were apart from Christ, but now that we are in Christ they are no longer true.

As the Spirit of Christ enables us to identify the lies of covetousness and replace them with the truth of the gospel, he will also give us the power to overcome. Consequently, we will experience the abundance and sufficiency of God's perfect provisions.