IDEA: Though the word "coveting" may never appear in a newspaper column, it appears everywhere if you just look for it. TEXT: "You shall not commit adultery. You shall nor 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 20:14, 17).

PURPOSE: To help listeners see how coveting can lead to terrible consequences not only for other people, but for other families.

Do you ever read much about covetousness in the newspaper or the news magazines? Are there stories in the newspapers and news magazines that really are about covetousness, but the word itself is never used?

I. When you look at People magazine or the entertainment section of a newspaper, what is one of the themes that seems to be part of a large number of the stories?

A couple married a year or two years breaks up. Why, when the story is told, does that happen? The Bible says that covetousness is involved.

When a man goes off on a business trip and has an affair, what prompts that? Many things may be involved, but the tenth commandment says, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife" and we could add, "your neighbor's husband."

II. We tend to think of covetousness in terms of objects--your neighbor's house, your neighbor's car, your neighbor's salary, but the command is clear that it also has to do with your neighbor's spouse.

Does it necessarily mean your next-door neighbor?

Do you think this is any less damaging because comedies on television laugh about it?

Coveting leads to lust which leads to adultery which leads to broken marriages which lead to broken families. The debris is all over our society.