IDEA: Covetousness can cause us to worship other gods. TEXT: "You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's" (Exodus 20:3, 17).

PURPOSE: To help listeners see how covetousness motivates us to other sins.

In communication there is the law of primacy and the law of recency. The first thing you say has great importance, and recency, the last thing you say has great importance in a talk.

If you have five reasons for something, you put your best one first and your second best one last.

Why do you think the first and last positions would have greater importance than other positions?

I.The first commandment, to have no gods before God, deals with an attitude and an action.

It is indeed an attitude that is revealed in an action because the action is spelled out in the second commandment.

Is it possible to worship other gods and not set up idols?

II. Covetousness is also an attitude revealed in actions.

Can you look into a person's heart and motives and declare they are covetous?

How does covetousness show up in our actions?

III. The attitude of covetousness can show up in our breaking of the first commandment.

The first commandment: You shall have no other gods before me.

Why did the people of Israel worship other gods in addition to Yahweh?

As far as we know, they never abandoned Jehovah to worship other gods. Instead, they added local gods to worship besides Him.

Often it was covetousness that caused them to worship local deities.

They wanted better crops so they worshiped fertility gods.

They coveted the power of their enemies so they were tempted to worship the gods of war.

When you think of Christians today abandoning God, substituting other things for God, there are other things they desire that take God's place in their lives.