But also, I want you to understand the word covetous, when it says that covetousness is idolatry, the word covetous, if you study scripture, when we see this being labeled in the New Testament as a covetous man or being covetous, we're talking about the love of money.
Okay, if you study the word of God and compare scripture with scripture, that is the love of money that we're talking about.
You know, for example, the Bible lists a list of sins that would get someone thrown out of the local church.
Obviously, we're all sinners. No one here is above sin, I'm not above sin, you're not above sin.
We're all sinners saved by grace and none of us is living the perfect Christian life, none of us is walking in the spirit all the time.
But there are certain very grievous sins that if a Christian is engaging in these sins, they're to be actually disciplined from the church.
And we know, of course, that 1 Corinthians 5 lists off those things and says, look, if any man that's called a brother be a fornicator, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, or a railer, or an idolater, and he says, with such a one, know not to eat.
Now, when we look at that list, most of those right away, we look at them and say, okay, I can understand fornication.
You know, if you just have people in the church and they're just our Christian brothers and sisters and they're members in good standing and they're just living in fornication,
then obviously that could poison the atmosphere of the church, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Young people are going to see that and think, oh, that's a way that I could live my life.
That's another way to do it.
You know, there's something else besides marriage.
You could just shack up and it's fine and look at these wonderful Christian people.
They're doing it.
You know, God says, uh-uh, fornicators are not allowed in the local church, you know.
Obviously, unsaved people, we want to bring them in and reach them.
We don't care if they're a fornicator, drunk, whatever.
But the Bible talks about someone who's called a brother, you know, someone who's actually been saved and they're our brother in Christ,
and then they get into these sins of drunkenness, fornication.
And we could see how drunkenness is serious, fornication is serious, extortion is serious, right, idolatry.
But then one of the things on the list is covetous.
One of the six items there in 1 Corinthians 5 is covetous.
Now, stop and think about this.
Everyone is covetous to an extent as far as in their heart because of the fact that every single sin that anyone commits,
it starts out as covetousness because the Bible says, you know, when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin, sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.
And the Bible, of course, says, you know, I had not known lust but that the Scripture had said, thou shalt not covet.
So the word covet is to desire something that's off limits to you, right.
When you desire something that's not yours, when you desire something that's off limits to you, that's coveting.
So when the Bible says, you know, don't covet your neighbor's house, don't covet your neighbor's wife, don't covet anything that is thy neighbor's,
don't desire things that are not yours, they don't belong to you.
The opposite of covetousness is contentment, right, being content with such things as you have is the exact opposite of covetousness.
But when it comes to, you know, being this serious sin to get someone disciplined out of the church,
it's not just talking about someone having a thought in their heart
because how could we actually confront someone about their thoughts?
Like how can we confront, like I can see how we can confront someone who's out in downtown Tempe drunk on a Friday night
and we can confront that person and say, hey, look, you know, this isn't going to fly.
Or let's say, you know, you got people that are living together and they're not married and they're in the church
and we can confront them and say, hey, look, you know, you need to get married or you need to get out of this relationship.
You're living in fornication.
But how do you confront someone about a thought that they're having in their heart?
You know, I remember one time I actually had a guy come to me and say to me, you know, he was like going to throw himself out of the church.
He's basically saying, I don't think I should be coming to church, I don't know if I should be coming to church
just because I'm struggling with lust in my heart and so that makes me covetous.
And so therefore, you know, I don't even know if I should even be going to church until I can conquer this sin.
And I told him, I said, look, that's not what we're talking about here
because whatever the covetous is in 1 Corinthians 5, it must be something that is apparent outwardly to be able to be judged outwardly.
Every single person is going to have a wrong thought in their heart or from time to time be covetous in one way or another
because like I said, sin is pretty much a result of covetousness almost all the time.
If not all the time, it all starts there.
But when we talk about the covetous man in the Bible who the Bible calls an idolater,
the covetous man, the covetous person, the one that we're not even supposed to eat with,
you know what we're talking about is a person whose life is characterized by the love of money.
That's what we're talking about.
We're talking about somebody who is constantly talking about money and indulging financially,
bragging about money.
And look, I've seen people where I've looked at that person and thought to myself,
this is who the Bible is telling us to get rid of in 1 Corinthians 5
where you have these people who they're just bragging about their stocks and bonds and their portfolio
and they're always just in some kind of a contest with other people of who's got the nicest house,
who's got the fanciest toys, who's got the expensive vehicles, the vacation and bragging.
The problem with that is that when you get around people like that, it starts making you not content
and it starts making you want to have all those things.
You know, if I get around somebody who's constantly bragging about homes and vehicles and stocks and bonds,
you know, it could start to make me look at my house and think, well, maybe it's time that I need to upgrade.
You know, maybe I need to drive a fancier vehicle.
And it could start becoming a competition.
And, you know, we don't want the house of God to ever degenerate into that kind of a place
where it's all about keeping up with the Joneses financially and it becomes a very carnal thing.
You know, I think a big example of this where I could see somebody being disciplined from the church,
and we've never disciplined anyone from our church over this issue, by the way, just so you know.
We've thrown out people for fornication, drunkenness, and many other things.
But we've not thrown anyone out over this issue.
But here's where I could picture this happening.
I remember back in the 80s, there was a big Amway thing coming into churches.
And there were three different things that you would look for.
Number one, they would park their car backwards when they joined Amway.
Number two, they would shave off all facial hair.
And number three, they would constantly be spraying this little Amway brand Binaca into their mouth, a little breath spray.
And so as soon as you saw someone pull into the church parking lot and park backwards,
you'd be kind of like, you'd be worried.
They get out of the car, mustache is gone.
You're like, no, please don't be, no, no, not another one, not you.
And they're reaching into their pocket and it's like, what are they going to pull out?
No!
And my dad used to call it invasion of the body snatchers.
My dad would be ranting about this, it's like invasion of the body snatchers.
Because he had friends that used to be cool, they used to be normal, they used to be a good church member.
Now all they talk about is Amway.
And all they talk about is money.
And my dad even went to an Amway meeting with one of these people just because he wanted to kind of go behind enemy lines and see what it was like.
And he said it was like a church service to money.
I remember him coming home and explaining it to me as a little kid, he's explaining it to me.
He said we sang hymns where we sang about money and a preacher got up and he preached a sermon.
Except it wasn't about God, it was about money.
And I'm telling you, these people that we knew that got involved in Amway back in the late 80s, early 90s,
some of them got fired from their jobs because they were pushing Amway on the job and constantly talking about Amway.
And so they got fired from their jobs and many of them caused huge problems in the church.
I don't know if any of them got formally excommunicated from their church, but they definitely got in trouble with their church.
Their pastor was having to take them aside and tell them, hey, you can't be using church to be pushing Amway.
And by the way, at our church we don't want anybody using church to push their business or promote business adventures.
Now look, I understand that sometimes people at church are going to do business with one another,
but you don't want to use church as your multi-level marketing recruiting ground.
So we've got to be careful that you don't cross that line if you're into that sort of thing.
And I would recommend that you not be into that sort of thing in the first place. It's very dangerous.
So I know that was a long explanation, but I want you to grasp the fact that when the Bible is talking about
people that we should separate from and not even eat with, have no fellowship with, put them out of the congregation,
and he's listing these grievous sins of fornication and drunkenness and so forth.
And obviously these people are welcome back once they repent, but while they're in fornication,
while they're in a state of drunkenness, you know, they have to be put from the congregation.
Why is covetousness on that list? Because we're talking about these type of people that are into money,
the love of money, to the point where it's apparent and it becomes an issue.
So let me ask you this. If the Bible is teaching that people who are characterized by the love of money
should be thrown out of the church because it's so harmful to have that person around,
just like it's harmful to have the couples shacking up and the drunks and whatever,
then why would it be acceptable for someone who loves money to be the pastor of the church of all places?
I mean, just stop and think about how illogical that is.
If we're not even supposed to have church members who are into money, how could we have a pastor who's into money?
And stop and think about this. If he's not into money, why does he have several luxury million dollar homes
and wearing fancy clothes and driving fancy cars?
You know, this is the guy who's going to lead us as we follow Christ? That doesn't make any sense.
Okay. And so therefore I'm going to stand by what I said at the beginning of the sermon
and I'm going to continue to prove it throughout the sermon that I don't believe that any righteous preacher is wealthy.
You don't become wealthy preaching the word of God the way it's supposed to be preached.
You don't be a biblical pastor and walk away from that filthy rich. You just don't.
Unless you're a deceiver, unless you love money, unless you're covetous and abusive and so forth.