IDEA: Murder lies not only in the act but also in the motive. TEXT: "You shall not murder. 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 20:13, 17).

PURPOSE: To help listeners see the damage that covetousness can do.

Do you like murder mysteries?

If so, what do you like about them?

It really isn't a mystery why people murder one another.

I. Some murders are crimes of passion.

Spouses shoot one another in an argument.

II. Outside of murders that come from passion, the second reason people murder is covetousness.

In the Bible a king named Ahab used his power to have a man Naboth murdered so that he would get Naboth's field.

Drug killings are not really caused by drugs; they are caused by covetousness.

Sometimes murders in families take place because a man covets another woman and kills his wife to make it happen.

People have murdered spouses to get the insurance money. Police are often aware of the fact that just weeks before the murder, the husband has doubled his insurance on her.

III. A passage in James 1:13-15 traces the path that covetousness can take and the damage that comes from it.

"Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1:13-15).