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, OK, 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 can see how drunkenness is serious.
Fornication's 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.
'Cause the Bible says, you know,
when lust hath 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,
it is how could we actually confront someone
about their thoughts?
Like how could we,
like I can see how we could 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 First Corinthians chapter 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, you know, 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.
Maybe I -- 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 Benaka 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?"
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 like 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 ventures, okay?
Now look, I understand that sometimes people at church are gonna do business with one another,
but you don't want to use church as your multi-level marketing, you know, recruiting ground, okay?
So we gotta 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, okay?
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 place?
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?
This is the guy who's going to lead us as we follow Christ?
That doesn't make any sense.
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.