All Covetousness

Transcript

Good Morning and greetings in Jesus name! Welcome to this new week, this new day. I wish every Indian who is listening to me ‘ A Happy Independence Day’. This is a day when we celebrate our nation and we celebrate the freedom we received as a nation. We thank the Lord for this beautiful country of India and I do believe that the Lord is going to use each and everyone of you – my dear friends, brothers and sisters, the churches.

The Lord is going to use you to become a blessing to the nation of India. Some of you may not be Indians, some of you may not even be associated with India, but I believe because of this word that is coming to you, because you have been listening to this podcast daily, you are connected to India and because you are connected here, the Lord will use you to bring revival to this nation, whether or not you are an Indian.

We thank the Lord for this day. Let’s read Luke 12:15, ‘And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth’.
Jesus is telling us, we need to take heed, we need to pay attention and make sure we add extra weightage to certain aspects of what he is teaching us. Everything that the Lord teaches us is valuable but whenever Jesus would emphasis to something, we need to pay extra attention to those things. In this scripture, Jesus says, we need to keep ourselves from all kinds of covetous desires.

Covetousness is something that is prevalent not just in the world but even in the church. Some of our desires may be really evil and/ or sinful and then there are other desires that don’t look evil or wrong on the outside, but when we try to investigate the motives of the heart, the agenda, the hidden reason why we want this one thing or why we want to achieve this agenda in life, we understand that the motive was completely wrong and it was not a God ordained motive or dream and that is the difference between God driven dreams and selfish ambitions.

Now, on the outside when I say that ‘I want to see the nation of India saved’, it may look like a good desire, a God desire; but when we investigate the motive why I want India to be saved: Is it because I want to exercise more power or I want more fame, I have things my way, easy and convenient or is it because I want to see people’s lives touched by the grace, love and mercy of God?

Whenever our desires are based on how I can benefit or it is based on my family, my church, my company, my business – all of this is rooted in covetousness; that we want ourselves to have a little more, a little better and most times covetousness is birthed out of comparing ourselves to somebody else.

A Pastor of a church will compare his church, the teachings, the attendance and activities in his church with the church next door or a church he has been following online and then will begin to compare his church sometimes to feel good about himself or will want do what others are doing because of a covetous desire rather than imitating a good example for the blessing of his people.
Therefore, I started with sharing that not every desire that we see on the outside, even the ones that are good might not necessarily be out of the right cause or the right motive/ intention.

And if we can trace out intention back to the glory of God and we know that it is the will of God for this to happen then that desire is not covetousness. Even if on the outside it may look like a greedy thing to pray for, it is a good desire if the root of it is for the glory of God and will of God. But whenever my desires are based on how I want to become rich, I want to become bigger and better but not based on the glory of God and not subjected to the will of God, it is a covetous desire and Jesus says, ‘Make sure to keep yourself from all kinds of covetousness’ – because it’s not just about money or ministry, it could be about the person you are marrying, it could be the way your children are raised every area you need to protect and guard yourself from covetousness and this is the reason Jesus gives,’For a man’s life, his identity, his understanding of who he is, it is not consisting in the abundance of the things, which he possesses’.

Everytime we operate in the spirit of covetousness, our identity will be connected to the things that we possess and Jesus is telling us that a man’s life is not about the abundance of the things he possesses, which means you can have abundance, you can have many properties and yet your identity doesn’t need to be connected to what you have.

When your identity is connected with what you do, what you own, what you have, how successful you are in ministry or business, then your root is covetousness and that is something we need to repent of and lay it at the altar, and ask the Lord to give us the grace to keep our hearts free from all kinds of covetousness.

Prayer: Daddy, we thank you for this word, we pray that our nation and our people will be free from all kinds of covetousness. We pray that our motives for serving, growing and prosperity will be to become a blessing to the body of Christ, it will be to bring glory and honor to you and it will be in subjection to your will and plan for our lives. Thank you for speaking to us, in Jesus name we pray and declare. Amen!