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Well, sir, I hope that you're all ready for another one of those heart-to-heart talks

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regarding the last, the tenth of the commandments that God gave.

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This is the tenth of God's ten rules for living.

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I'm not going to review any part of my last of the heart-to-heart talk.

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You just should have been there listening.

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And if you weren't there, you just missed it, that call.

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And so all I'm going to do is to refresh your memory in reading to you from the Word of

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God this tenth commandment, the sin of covetousness, one of the most treacherous sins that a human

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being can take into his life.

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And it's just like that.

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Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife,

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nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is

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thy neighbor's.

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Very plain.

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There it is.

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Black is black, white is white.

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There's no need for argument.

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You don't have a leg to stand on if you wish to take issue against these words because

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our very lies prove that if we go contrary to this rule for living, this commandment

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will suffer, there'll be the price to be paid, you will be the loser.

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Plain and simple, thou shalt not covet.

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Thou shalt not desire anything that you must obtain through any other means except that

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which is in your reach.

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Plain and simple.

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Now turn into the New Testament, nothing can be clearer or more emphatic than the repetition

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of this same commandment given by Jesus himself.

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Never once in all of his teaching did Jesus ever teach anything that was contrary to that

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which was in the Old Testament or that which God had given.

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Now remember, Jesus and God are one, yet definite and separate personalities.

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But one never spoke contrary to the other.

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One never had a will separate and apart from the other.

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Their teachings were the same.

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Therefore, every one of God's commandments were carried out to the full, spoken of by

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Jesus himself.

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And the words of Jesus himself leaves no misunderstanding regarding covetousness.

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In the 12th chapter of Luke, beginning with the 15th verse, we see that a man came to

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Jesus and asked the Master to satisfy his desire by compelling his brother to divide

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the inheritance with him.

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He might have been deserving of the inheritance that he was asking for.

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It could even have been legitimate.

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But Jesus answered the man with these words, take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness,

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for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

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There it is.

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The whole ranks covetousness and covetous man with fornication, the idolater.

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And he declares that the covetous man, the idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom

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of Christ in God.

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The writer of Hebrews continues, be free from the love of money.

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Content with such things as ye have.

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For himself saith, referring to Jesus, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any

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wise forsake thee.

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You will remember that in our earlier heart to heart talk, I showed you that covetousness

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will rob a human being of their satisfaction, their contentment, their peace of mind, and

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this proves exactly what I said.

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For he has again repeated, be free from the love of money.

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Be free from that bondage that you're in.

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And I don't know of a greater bondage than the bondage that many people are in for this

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desire of getting.

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Getting.

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But until it almost becomes an obsession, I mean that.

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Literally, I have seen men who were, where so far as sense of money values were concerned,

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were rated as millionaires.

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I have never seen a man yet who was satisfied with his first million.

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If he got one million, he couldn't rest.

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He had to get his second million.

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If that same man had gotten fifty million, he would still keep on trying to get fifty

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more.

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Just like that.

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A covetous person, if you have a covetous wife, she is nagging you to death for that

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piece of furniture if she just had all that new bedroom outfit.

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But nine times out of ten, even though you think you're going to give her peace of mind,

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by buying it for her, I'll promise you something.

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She'll start on the next room.

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And even after she has new furniture in every room in the house, she'll still not be contented.

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Your next move is to get a new house and more rooms.

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Why?

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Because she has taken in her heart, in her mind, in her life, the poison of covetousness.

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And the writer of Hebrew says, be free from the love of money.

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Content with such things as ye have.

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Oh, and it's only when you reach this place that you're really going to have peace in

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the home, contentment of mind, and know the glorious atmosphere of real relaxation.

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Where you can sit down on your sofa at night and completely relax and fall apart.

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And look the whole room over and say, I'm so satisfied.

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I'm so grateful.

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I thank God for what we have, Harry.

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You know, sure, this is just practical everyday living.

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Now watch something.

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Returning to the teaching of Jesus, a striking and forceful statement of the principle is

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contained in the remarkable words and these the words of Jesus himself.

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Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

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You can't do it.

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You are two masters.

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You've got to make your choice.

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You can't be the servant of both.

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And he made the statement after warning his disciples against laying up treasures for

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themselves upon the earth.

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He followed it by declaring that they were not to be anxious concerning the things that

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they should eat or drink.

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Are they wearing apparel?

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They will rather to seek first the kingdom of God.

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Now the sentence itself is most suggestive as putting into contrast the two camps in

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which men serve.

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God and mammon.

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The inspiration of the forces of service in the camp of God is that of rest, of satisfaction.

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That's the reason the writer of Hebrews goes on to say, be free from the bondage of discontentment.

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For has not Jesus himself promised, I will in no wise fail thee?

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Neither will I in any wise forsake thee.

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Have confidence in me.

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Have faith in me.

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Coming back again, if you're serving God, God is the author of rest, of satisfaction.

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Whereas the stimulus and the spur of service in the camp of mammon is that of desire, of

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getting, of greed, of covetousness.

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And there you'll find dissatisfaction, discontentment, mixed up people, emotional people.

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Oh beloved, this is the most simple thing in the world that I could talk to you about.

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And every person to whom I'm speaking is either in one camp or the other, in the camp of God

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or in the camp of mammon.

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You have a master and there are only two masters, either God or mammon.

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Mammon serves God in the quiet force of his rest in God.

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He goes to sleep at night with confidence, with trust in his master in God.

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And he gets a good night's sleep.

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Mentally he rests in God knowing that God will not fail him.

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He gets up in the morning knowing that he's in the care and keeping of Almighty God.

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There's contentment, there's rest.

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Man serves mammon in the restless energy of his desire for mammon.

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He constantly lives in the spirit of getting, of getting, of coveting.

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And one sin will lead to another until his whole system is poisoned, his mind is poisoned.

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And herein lies the most terrible sin of all sins, the sin of covetousness because it is

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a poison.

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It will rob you of your most precious possessions.

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It's the fever which makes the eye glisten with a false luster, the cheek flush with

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deceitful color, the muscles twitch with unnatural activity, the nerves will soon throb with

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restless desire.

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It's the service which, well, its final wage is death.

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And it's just like that.

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Wherever man desires anything, small or great, outside the possibility of righteousness,

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he is in that measure in the grip of a fever which must destroy him and it will destroy

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him eventually unless it is quenched.

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So therefore, my friend, right now, look yourself directly in the face, be dead honest with

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yourself and honest before God and face that sin of covetousness in your own heart and

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life.

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You've been running around to doctors, taking pills, getting shots for your nervousness,

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the unrest that you're feeling in your body, the emotional disturbances, your blood pressure

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has gone clear up.

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Just relax a little bit.

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Be honest with yourself.

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See, you can put your finger on the disease and it is a disease that's even worse than

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cancer.

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This poison, this disease of covetousness can eventually destroy you unless you are

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big enough to admit the sin to yourself and do something about it.

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Was there ever a day in which this great principle needed more forceful statement than today?

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I ask you.

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Is it too much to say that covetousness lies at the root of all the evils that blight the

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world today, especially its so-called civilized portion?

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Didn't I ask you?

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Is it too much to say that covetousness lies at the root of all the evils that blight the

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world today?

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The oppression of feeble races, the indifference to righteousness that alone exalts the nation,

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the toleration of giant evils that sap the virtue of the people, these all may be traced

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to the restless and unsatisfied heart of man in his covetousness for that which possessed,

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does but breed new desire.

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It's like that.

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I'm talking about something that is subtle.

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I'm talking about the most subtle, the most treacherous sin in the world today.

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Not only in the national outlook is covetousness discovered, but at the base of all social

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problems lies the same worm of discontent.

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The greed of the capitalist, the brutality of great corporations, all arise from the

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lust of possession.

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That's right.

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We need to stop and analyze this thing.

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It has to be a treacherous sin or Jesus never would have spoken of it in the terms that

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he did, neither would God Almighty have made it the tenth of man's rules for living.

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Thou shalt not covet.

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All the individual vices that are robbing the nations of their young men and maidens,

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drink, impurity, gambling, all of these things grow out of unsatisfied craving of the heart,

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covetousness and all of humanity.

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Away from God, covetous and no amount of getting proves to be gain.

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Therefore I say to you again, I ask you the question, is it too much to say that covetousness

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lies at the root of all the evils that light the world today?

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It's greed.

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It's desire for more.

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Take all the nations of the world.

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The only place in the world today that you'll find real peace is in the heart of a man or

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a woman who has complete faith in God and the heart of a Christian.

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So far as nations are concerned, you cannot find a really peaceful nation in the whole

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world.

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What is it?

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It's greed.

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It's greed.

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It's desire for more.

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And we get possession of more and more and more.

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And our nation is no exception.

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Leaders of our nations.

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Oh, we say we want peace, we cry for peace, but my friend, in the hearts of our leaders,

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the steel, the desire for more, the possessions of others, it's more, it's greed, it's covetousness.

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The greed of the capitalist, the brutality of the corporations, all arise from the lust

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of possession.

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And they said, well, Miss Cooney, you've painted a mighty dark picture.

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What is the answer?

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All right, this is the answer.

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Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy

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mind.

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Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

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But God first, and then you'll find that you'll automatically put others before yourself.

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And you'll have something in your mind greater than yourself.

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And in so doing, you'll lose yourself.

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And covetousness has no part in your life.

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And my friend is the answer, God himself.

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Amen.