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with God

For the next two weeks we will be spending our time in the Ten Commandments.
People always seem to wonder why we have to follow the Ten Commandments or God's laws?
So I thought we would look at each commandment and see the consequences of not following them.
So today we will start off with number ten and work our way backwards.

Ex 20:17 (NLT)

"Do not covet your neighbor's house. Do not covet your neighbor's wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else your neighbor owns."

The word covet means: "to desire" or "to lust" . So what's so bad about desiring something that someone else has?

Think about it for a minute.
Say you get a brand new car and your friend starts to lust after it, so much that they start to dislike you because you have something nice. Now your friendship is in danger or no longer exists.
This may sound a little extreme so here's another example.

You are sitting there watching a movie and during this movie you see a beautiful woman or a hunk of a man.
Then you go home to your spouse and think, "How come he/or she can't look like that?"
Then you start finding other things wrong with them, soon you are thinking of divorce or looking at other men/or women desiring them, and also wanting your spouse to look or be like them.
All of this because you desired what someone else had, or something that isn't yours.

These are just a few examples and they both may sound a little extreme, but they do happen, and they could or may have happened in your life. Maybe not with either of these examples, but I would think it would be safe to say it has happened.
The Ten Commandments or God's laws are not here to hurt us or make us unhappy. In fact it's the opposite. God's laws are here to help and protect us so that we will have an abundant and happy life.

John 10:10b I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

If it seems you have been unhappy lately and desire to be like someone else, then you are coveting what he or she has and in a sense you are saying to God that what He has given you is not good enough.

Matt 7:11 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

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