Deuteronomy 5:21 Bible Study | Episode 861

January 27, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 5:21   Bible Study | Episode #861

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Deuteronomy, chapter 5. We're dealing with the last commandment, perhaps the most intriguing of the commandments in its, in its purpose and usage and in importance, probably for the, for the Christian life.

It is a. It is a commandment that is inwardly focused and really kind of leads us to the teachings of Jesus about the, The. The commandments are not about the outcome.

They're about the attitude of the heart. In fact, I mean, that's what the 10th Commandment is. He says, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbors.

And I guess the best way just to say what the commandment is you shall not covet.

God gives to others and God gives to us. And you should not desire what God gives to someone else. Now that is. That is a totally and. And completely inward issue.

Now it, it becomes an outward issue when you begin to do things that would cause, cause it to be obvious that you desired or coveted something that was someone else's.

But the, the truth is, is that it is. It is a. It is, it is God's deep dive into, into your heart at the end of the ten Commandments. Because when you're dealing with coveting, when you're dealing with desiring something that is not yours, a blessing that is not yours, a relationship that is not yours, a.

A opportunity, maybe that is not yours, is, is to say a couple of things about God. First of all, that God is not as good to you as he's good as he is to others.

That God's plan for you is not as important as his plan for others. That what God wants for you is not going to glorify him as much as someone else.

And the Truth about that is that is not true. It is not true. Each person is designed and made uniquely to glorify God. I was watching a little video yesterday.

It just caught my eye. Normally I wouldn't even be doing it. And, and it was a black guy listening to a white guy tell a story about his daughter being in the grocery store and a black family being in front of him.

And the lady who is the mother of the family was standing there. And the little girl, probably three, four, five years old, said to her father, why did God make black people?

And the answer to the question is an obvious answer, but it's a good answer to give to, for children to understand. God made us different because, well, God is a unique, infinite, powerfully beautiful God.

And he wants to have not a bunch of robots that look the same. He wants us to all be different. Why? Because we can uniquely, powerfully, intimately glorify Him. He wants us to be thankful for how he made us.

He wants us to be. He wants us to, to enjoy how we were fearfully and wonderfully made. And that's what scripture says about us, that we're fearfully and wonderfully made.

We're. We're. We.

It's.

We are, we are. We are unique. We are, we are powerful in our own ways. We, we have, we have great purpose. Our glorification of God by our faith, by trusting him and walking in his will and way, is very unique for every person.

Oftentimes people look around and say, you know, I want this or I want that, and you might want it. And let me tell you something of the things I've learned in my life over 50 years of ministry.

God does give you the desires of your heart, meaning that if he made you for a certain, a certain way, and, and you desire those things, and, and those things are, are not to your detriment.

Not to, not against God's plan for you, not against God's will for you. They're, they're the natural part of who you are as, as a creation of God. God gives you those things eventually.

If you, if you chase after him now, he may not give them to you when you want them. He may not give them to me to you when you've planned them out.

I had a perfect plan at 18 years old to go to. Go to an Ivy League university and spend some time in the military and go to law school. And then I was going to run for office politically, and that's what I wanted to do.

That was the desire of my heart. And I had great Plans for that. Now, did my life work out that way? No, not at all. God called me to the ministry.

I didn't want to go in the ministry. God sent me and had had me live certain places and do certain things that I didn't really want to do. But at the end, at the end of the day, many of the things that I desired in my heart to do were a part of God's plan.

God had put that desire in my heart. He'd made me a certain way. And, and at the.

After 50 years of my life, I can begin to see how those things come together. And some of the things he wanted, some of the things he had for my life, I don't want anymore.

I mean, some of the things I had for my life, I don't want anymore. The desires I had, I realized, you know, that wasn't all that fulfilling and not something I really want to do.

Now if you gave me the opportunity to do that, I'd go, nah, I thought I did. That was the desires of a youthful mind that just really was trying to get everything he could get.

Some of the things that he was desiring for mothers, coveting other people's stuff. And, and then some of the stuff I set aside and said, well, that will never be for me because God has called me in this direction.

He's brought me full circle and I've been able to do and experience and be a part of some of those things and some of the places that I desired to live, I've never lived.

And some of the places that I never wanted to live again right back in the middle of it. And you know what?

He not only brought me to those things that I desired when I was a child, he brought, he brought me to things that I didn't desire. And, and I, now that I'm where I am, I want those things I want because God's plan is pleasing and perfect.

It's good for us. And walking through life with him leads us to those things. And so what happens when a person covets other things that are not theirs?

And, and, and you can define all those things. Anything that's not a God, not a part of God's divine plan and guide for your life. His path for your life is not yours because remember, he gives the gifts and his gifts are good.

He's our heavenly Father. Do He. He, Jesus even asked, does, Does a natural Father, does he give bad gifts? Does he give his children snakes and scorpions? Does he, does he do that?

No, he gives his. His children good gifts. Why? Because. Because he loves them. Well, how much more does our Heavenly Father give us good gifts? I mean, how much more is he wanting to do that for each one of us?

And you go, well, he loves someone more than you. He does not. I want you to hear me. The same price paid for, paid for everyone else that you think he loves more than you.

The same price paid for was paid for them that, that was paid for you. He shed Jesus's blood for you. And let me tell you something. If you'd been the only one, if you'd be the only one that that had fallen, Jesus would have come and died for you.

That's how much God loves you. And so his plan for you involves some very specific gifts and a very specific life and very specific opportunities to enjoy that life. And so a life spent with a heart bent toward, you know, hate and murder and sexuality and adultery and, you know, theft of others, people's stuff and, and lying about things, that's obviously not the heart God wants you to have.

But he also doesn't want you to covet the things that He. He's not playing for you. He wants you to, he wants you to, to be excited about those things.

He wants you to enjoy those things. And you can't do that if you're continuing to look around and try to get the things that are not his part of his plan.

Now if he opens your eyes to stuff and gives you opportunities to experience them, go do it.

But don't just chase after the experience rather than, rather than chasing after the God who created the experience, don't do that. Coveting is a, Coveting is a really, is a cancer of the heart.

It's, it's desiring that which God didn't design for you, didn't give you so that you can miss out on what he did desire for you.

So God said, the end. You know, all these other, all these other commandments, and I talked about this the last time I went through the Ten Commandments. All the other commandments are about relationships with others.

First few commandments deal with our relationship with God. This, the, the commandment about our parents deals with intimate relationships with our parents. Then the, you know, the you shall not murder, adultery, still bear false witness.

They, they all deal with your relationship with other people, you know, other humans that you're around. But the last one really deals with your relationship with yourself, your perspective on life.

And it says, you know, don't covet anything that your neighbors. Because God, who's a good gift giver, gives, wants to give you a special gift for you. You know, my youngest daughter, she is really into giving thoughtful gifts.

She wants, when she gives a gift, she wants it to be thoughtful. She wants it to be something that is needed, is it. But, but also something that is memorable, something that matters.

She, she wanted, she had a plan for her wedding and she added at the place she wanted to have. It is very intimate setting, very, very, Couldn't have but a few people there.

And, and it's a beautiful place. It was what she wanted to do. She's just into that kind of stuff, planning those things. And she, when she picks a gift for you, it's something she's thought about.

Well, you know, she always seems to give good stuff, always look forward to what she might come up with in a situation. Not necessarily for me, just, it's just interesting how she thinks and it's kind of exciting how she thinks.

And so when she, when she's coming up with those gifts and doing those things, I, I, it's pretty neat. Well, if she's good at it because she thinks about it, how good is God?

He's really good.

Trust me. He's thought about the gifts. He's planning for your life and he's playing for your life. He's considered them from the foundation of time. In fact, Jesus was slain from the foundation of time, which means the best gift he ever gave us was planned when he started everything.

And the gifts he has for you are really, really good gifts.

But remember, he doesn't give gifts to hands who can't hold them. He waits till you're ready to have them. He waits till you're ready to hold Him. And how do you get ready to hold Him?

Well, you've got to strengthen your walk. You got to walk by faith so he can. So he can. When he places that hand in you, it won't be, I mean, that gift in your hands.

When he places that gift in your hands, it won't fall through your hands, but you'll be able to hold on to it and get the fullness of it.

And the way we hold on to those gifts and get the fullness of those gifts is, is we trust him and we learn to trust Him. And so those of those of you out there that feel like, well, I haven't really got all the gifts, what I would say to you is, set your heart on God.

Set your heart on trusting him with your life. Look for him every day. And the things that are going on and the things are happening for you, search for him in the hidden things and the small things in life.

And for you know it, you'll begin to see life like he sees life, and you'll begin to do things like he does. And for you know what, your strength will grow.

And for you know what, those gifts that seem like they just. You never got them will start pouring out to you.

And some of the gifts that you've gotten and didn't even know you had will really unveil themselves.

But you got to trust Him.

And for us Christians, that's.

That's. That's important.

And it's hard. It is.

But I pray that that'll be the case for you. I expect it will. Why wouldn't it be?

God's in the business of making believers that glorify Him. And you are one of those.

So why wouldn't you have God's plan? And why wouldn't you have his gifts? And why wouldn't you experience his goodness?

You will seek him. You will find him as you go. Today.

I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus.