 So John chapter number 12, I'm going to jump back into John 11 this Sunday evening, but for now, and we'll talk about that a little bit more on this Sunday evening, so that's a little odd, but we're in John chapter 12. We're entering the latter part of the ministry of Jesus. He's about to head into Jerusalem, and there is this story at the beginning of John chapter 12 that I want to kind of cut up a little bit. But tonight, I'm going to look at this part, a certain part of this story, and preach a very practical sermon for you tonight. So this will be a very applicable sermon. Everything in the Bible is applicable to our lives, but hopefully tonight, we can help you out a little bit. We can look at some things in the Bible. We can come out of here stronger and wiser than when we came. Look at John chapter 12 and verse number 1. The Bible says, then six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. So this just happened in John chapter 11. There they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. I'm going to cover the anointing and the oil in another separate sermon, but we're going to look at this next part that happens tonight. Look at verse number 4. It says, then say one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him. Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? So then this he said, and not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put therein. So what happens is Mary anoints Jesus' feet with oil, and that has some big connotations to it, and I'm going to preach a whole specific sermon on that, on the kingship, on the death, and the burial of Jesus that is coming up. But there's a lot of things that the oil signifies there. We'll talk about that at a different time. But it's interesting because Judas pipes up here as one of the disciples. Judas pipes up and says, why was this expensive ointment not sold so we could have the money and give it to the poor? And of course that's a very strange thing just on its face to see that happen because it wasn't his ointment in the first place. And why would it be his to sell? And he causes this, really what happens here is you see some strife in the room from what Mary is doing. And of course the Bible kind of gives us the answer here in verse number 6 that of course we know from other parts of the Bible who Judas is and what he's all about. But he didn't say this because he actually wanted to take the money and give it to the poor. He wanted to steal the money. It's what he wanted. He was a greedy person. He wanted to steal the money. This was kind of Judas' modus operandi in general aside from the fact that he's known for just betraying Jesus. He was known for just being greedy, being a thief and literally selling out Jesus Christ. Turn to Matthew chapter 26. So this story is in Matthew and Mark and at the end of this story in Matthew we see in verse number 14 of Matthew chapter 26. We see that it kind of calls out Judas here and it says in verse number 14 you know it gives the details of Jesus actually selling out or Judas actually selling out Jesus when he went to the Pharisees in Matthew 26 where the Bible says then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot same guy went under the chief priest and said unto them what will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you and they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. So what does he get? He wants money to sell out Jesus. What did he want from the ointment? He wanted money from the ointment. So what I want to do tonight is I want to talk a little bit about covetousness of course but I want to just point out first of all that Jesus with the disciples here there was strife here. There was strife in this room, in this situation and tonight I just want to show you you know how to identify and delete all strife in your life. Now who likes strife? I mean raise your hand if you like strife in your life and I'm going to talk about strife in general. We got one in the back that likes strife and her dad's like no you don't. But anyway so strife we're going to talk about it in general from a you know a nation perspective, a global perspective but really the application tonight is personal strife and it's going to give you the Bible is going to give you the answer here using this story from Judas on where all strife comes from and how to you know basically get rid of. Look if you could master do I think any of us can master what I'm going to talk about tonight? Probably not but if you could master what we're going to talk about what I'm going to show you from the Bible tonight you could live a strife free life theoretically if you could master this because the Bible is literally going to tell you where it comes from and how to get rid of it. All right so I mean Judas wanted the money that's what caused the strife here that's the definition turn to James chapter four and let's talk a little bit about things that you should not want in your life. Look at James chapter four and look at verse number one. So the first thing that we're going to do tonight is we're just going to look at desire. All right before we go into covetousness and all these things we're going to look at desire. All right we're going to look at desire in general. Look at James chapter four and verse number one. The Bible says from when come wars and fighting among you come they not hence even of your lusts that wore in your members. Now look at the next verse it says ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain ye fight and war yet ye have not because ye ask not. So verse number one basically explains and this can be applied to nations or it can be applied to individuals. All right it's saying all conflict comes from what you don't have. That's what the Bible is saying here. Look but here's what you need to understand we all want things. Do we not? Do we not all desire things? Desire. So look desire in general is what we need to tackle first because every single person every single day has desires in their life. Man woman child whatever it is every single person is going to go through every single day every single hour and they're going to desire certain things and what we need to understand is what are the good things that can come from desire and what are the bad things that can come from that desire and how can I tell the difference. So look every person has it it's normal to desire things it's normal to desire natural things is normal all right it is normal but look bad things can come from desire that's what James chapter four is telling us so what kind of bad things well the first thing it brings up is wars I mean like literal wars where do they come from they come from desires they come from lust what does that mean people want stuff you say I don't know what causes war look all war comes from desire all of it all war comes from desire of someone some nation some group of people some leader whatever it is desiring something desiring what desiring resources desiring I mean what are resources the resource I mean gold silver mineral lithium oil whatever you want people I mean you name it throughout history every single war can be just drilled down to somebody that wanted something resources land you know land is a resource production crops drugs heroin right opium what are we doing in Afghanistan I'm just kidding I mean here power power somebody that just desires power desires desires you know what kind of power military power maybe they desire economic power maybe war is good for the economy maybe war is good for certain businesses look it's because people want something every single war is this way I mean revenge or you know justice is an excuse to just go and get what you want many times I mean so are you and I'm not going to spend this is that's not what the sermon is about is war but I'm just saying like I'm showing you the blanket statement of James chapter four that all war comes from this all war comes from people desiring things all war so you say well can I never be for war well no because if somebody comes to take those things from you then that's a that's a justifiably defensive war now that gets you know that's self-defense right but the point is war aside it's a blanket statement in James chapter four and it's not just talking about wars it's talking about just fighting among who among you among you you're not a nation you are people you are individuals it's talking about desire is causing strife desire is causing fighting amongst you so the main the main point of the sermon tonight is that desire can cause fighting and strife on an interpersonal level and that's what I really want to focus on tonight because look we can't really control what all these you know principalities and powers in this world are doing but guess what you can control what you do you can control your desires or I hope you can control your desires if you can't control your desires you're going to have a lot of strife in your life so look on an interpersonal level strife and conflict James chapter four is telling us comes from somebody wanting something somebody wants what somebody wants stuff somebody wants recognition somebody wants money like Judas he wants something somebody wants a job somebody wants influence somebody wants power people all the same things that I just went through it's this desire that can cause strife because other people don't think they have it or they should have it that's where the conflict comes in you think on a personal level that you want these things whatever those things are that I just listed somebody else thinks you shouldn't have those things and there's the conflict there is the strife and look somebody's right somebody's wrong and according to the bible we can kind of unlock this mystery but the point is this all bad comes from desire of some kind that's the main thing before we dig into this but you say well pastor isn't there good desires I mean I have desires can I have desires in my life aren't there good to sure there's good desires there's good desires and there's bad desires turn to proverbs chapter 18 let's look at some good desires let's look at some good desires so we know what bad desires are is basically somebody wanting something that's you know not theirs or well just wanting something that other people don't think that they should have and then we have conflict right but look at there's some good desires I mean for men the bible says that a desire to have a wife is is good that's a good thing look at proverbs 18 in verse number 22 the bible says this it says who so find it the wife findeth a good thing so to have a desire to have a wife is a good thing that is good but now look at this it says and obtain a favor of the lord now this is just a little side note but I used to be a digital logic circuit designer and that whenever I see the words and and or and things like that I just I really pay attention to those words and if I desired a wife and I didn't have a wife I would pay super I would pay a lot of attention to this verse because the bible is saying who so findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtain a favor of the lord meaning what favor of the lord and a wife are found together those two things go hand in hand so if I wanted a wife and I didn't have a wife I would be searching to crack open that box that had the favor of the lord in it I would be trying to figure out how to get obtain the favor of the lord and I bet you I find a wife there it's kind of like oh favor the lord there it is I figured it out and it's like oh there's a wife that's basically what this verse is saying all right so that's not really the point of the sermon but desiring a wife is a good thing that's the the first point that's a good thing to desire so search out the favor of the lord and you'll possibly find a wife in the same boat up package all right how about this how about this money you're like I I'm broke and I need to pay my electric bill I really desire money right now is that bad to desire money to pay your electric bill no it is not it is not a bad thing to desire money to desire a job to desire things that are necessary for you in your life I mean women we talked about this or maybe I talked about it at first works but women inherently desire like it's just kind of coded into them they inherently desire a family and especially children women desire that and if you don't believe that you must not know any women because women have that coded into them they want children they want a family they want all these things and that's why feminism is so wicked another little side note here feminism is so wicked and evil because it literally robs women of the things that they truly desire god has put a desire romans 215 in the conscience of young women to desire a family to desire children gives them that nurturing nature and the world tries to teach them no no no no you don't desire children you desire a cubicle many women fall for this and then they wonder why they wake up 40 50 years old and they are completely miserable in their lives feminism is robbing you know it's it's convincing women to trade in a good desire for something that is just garbage basically something that they should not desire at all but the point is there are good desires in this life okay there's good desires now turn to Deuteronomy chapter number five so there's bad desires and there's good desires all right now I don't really like blanket statements but I'm going to throw out a blanket statement this evening all strife all strife you say I want to know how to get rid of strife all strife is wanting something someone has or having something someone else wants that is where all strife comes from that statement right there and I'm going to show you tonight that without the bible let me say that again let me say that again all strife comes from wanting something someone else has or having something someone else wants all strife comes from that and the only way to decode who is right in that situation is with the bible and I'm going to show you examples tonight of if you don't have the bible how you will get it exactly wrong and how it's been pushed the opposite of what the bible says has been pushed down our throats for decades to the point where our society around us is accepting the opposite of what the bible says and then you wonder why is there so much strife because we've accepted the exact opposite of what the bible teaches the bible teaches how to get rid of strife the world is teaching exactly the opposite of what the bible says and we have all this strife and we're just going to have more and more strife look down at deuteronomy chapter 5 and look at verse number 21 this is impossible to decipher without the bible it's impossible to crack this code without the bible chew on that atheist that just thinks that we should all follow our own morality I'm going to show you where that goes look at deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse number 21 the bible says neither shall thou what desire thy neighbor's wife neither shall thou covet thy neighbor's house his field or his man servant or his maid servant his ox his ass or anything that is thy neighbor's that's pretty inclusive there pretty much covers it or anything else it says that's thy neighbor's but it says notice it says it doesn't say you should not run off with your neighbor's wife it says you should not even isn't that kind of like exactly what jesus said when he said to even to lust after another woman is adultery in your heart he said you should not even desire thy neighbor's wife neither shall thou covet thy neighbor's house I mean because look I mean jesus knows what comes from the heart then you start to go and you do those things look you should not even desire the things that are not yours and should never be yours is what the bible is teaching in deuteronomy chapter number five he hasn't taken anything deuteronomy five no one has taken anything to covet to lust after is to simply want it and that's where strife comes from that's where fighting come from that's where problems come from you say well deuteronomy five 21 that's pretty I mean that is pretty I mean who would disagree with that well like the the world around us that's who you say your pastor you're crazy what are you talking about look just look at the very first sentence thou shalt not desire thy neighbor's wife is there any is there any details there given now she'll not desire thy neighbor's wife unless her husband is a jerk unless you know there's like she finds somebody else that like is her soulmate or something hollywood has been pushing the opposite of this for decades in the movies I can't tell you how many movies I can remember from the 80s where some guy is portrayed as a jerky husband or whatever I'm pretty sure it's gone the other way to where some wife is a bad wife and then the wife meets some perfect guy or something and it's literally a romantic love story about some woman running off with some guy that is not her husband I mean these and these are these movies have been celebrated they're they're as edgy I mean they've been celebrated they've been given awards all these different things both sides of it men running off with you know husbands running off with women that they fall in love with and then wives running off with men that they fall in love with and all that look it's just two simple steps I read one time I read a book one time that said literally hollywood is five story lines just redone and it's so true because it's basically the same the same methodology every single time all they do is they they demonize the other the spouse the other spouse by making him or her a jerk or a a bad wife or whatever it is and then they just have the other spouse the the other one that you they're trying to get you to feel sorry for fall in love with someone else in love and so there they've destroyed Deuteronomy 521 they destroyed the fact that you know a man can have his wife and that you should not desire somebody else's wife or desire somebody else's husband the other way as well and then they've completely destroyed the term love and I mean you wonder like you look at what people are substituting love for today and you know they started destroying that back in the 60s and 70s they started just replacing it with lust really really they what they they did successfully in hollywood was they took this bad desire for something that you should not have something that is not yours this lust as James chapter 4 would call it and they successfully replaced it and redefined it as love and the whole country the whole western world swallowed the hook I mean look at and you're like why why is the divorce rate you know what is it 60 70 percent depending on who you talk to why is that well look what's happened turn to Proverbs chapter 5 so without the Bible the world will get it exactly wrong that's why the Bible is important look at Proverbs chapter 5 how about how about other things how about desiring not not coveting you know all these other things the house the field the land the ox all these different all the stuff all the things look at Proverbs chapter 5 in verse number 15 what's the Bible say what's the Bible say it says drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well meaning you own it drink your own stuff use your own things don't go and covet somebody else's stuff cistern water Deuteronomy 5 21 how about this go to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 the Bible is very clear on other people's things and even other people's labor look at 2nd Thessalonians chapter number 3 2nd Thessalonians chapter number 3 look at verse number 12 so we're looking at what the Bible says in a little bit more detail of Deuteronomy 5 21 just looking at what the Bible says about those things about that water cisterns land ox all the other any other thing that is thy neighbor's look at 2nd Thessalonians chapter number 3 what about your neighbor's work what about what your neighbor does what about his his accomplishments the things that he's built all these things now them look at verse number 12 now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness so there was these people that weren't working there's these people that weren't working I mean sounds like a problem right that with quietness they what they work and what they eat their own bread so here you see the stuff and you see the labor so the Bible here is saying that your labor should be yours your labor is your property the Bible is very clear about this and from your labor will come your own stuff that other people should not covet they shouldn't covet your labor and they shouldn't covet the things that come from your labor because why it's yours that's why the Bible is very clear on that so what would you call it if you were stealing someone's labor that's kind of a weird concept isn't it like like if I would just like steal a brother's labor I mean say I say I just took somebody and I just like I stole all their labor like like I basically took them I stole them well the Bible calls that men stealing the Bible calls that stealing a man in Exodus what is it Exodus chapter 21 and he that stealeth a man you know the Bible says should be put to death stealing a man is stealing his labor that's why they stole men they stole men so they could have their labor and the Bible saying your labor is your property it's a property that we've completely just forgotten about today we dismiss today but the the point is what is the world teaching here I'm telling you without the Bible we can't decipher this without the Bible the world will get it completely wrong you're like pastor you're crazy well the the world teaches that if one person has too much none of this applies well what do you mean too much what is what is too much well we'll decide what that is we'll tell you what too much is we'll tell you what rich is we'll define we'll define what defines too much but the point is the Bible doesn't give permission for any of that the Bible says that a person's labor is their property and you're not to covet someone's property you're not to desire you're not to even you're not to not only aren't you not to take it you're not even supposed to want it you're not even supposed to have a desire for it we're well beyond that in the society that we live in I mean so what it was this is a government that takes labor from some and it gives it to other it's not biblical at all based on some made-up metric based on some made-up number based on turn to Acts chapter 17 how about this one based on race and you get in trouble here but guess what the Bible says that there is no race look at Acts chapter 17 and verse number 26 oh pastor you really you know watch the news there's races everywhere it's race this race that the Bible says there's one race look at the Bible in verse number 26 of Acts chapter 17 the Bible says in heth made made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth and not determine the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation there's one blood on this earth and again and again and again the New Testament is telling us forget about genealogies it doesn't matter what color you are it doesn't matter who your parents were it doesn't matter any of these things you all have the same access to Jesus Christ the same access to salvation the same access to the truth and to have people try to divide people along lines that the Bible says don't exist is wicked as hell and you know what it's bad for the people that they're trying to give things to it's bad for the people that they're trying to you know but the problem is people that fall below the line where the government says you know these people don't have enough and we need to give them they're they're generally four people give they shouldn't be though because the Bible says based on any metric somebody's labor somebody's goods those belong to them and nobody should desire those things based on anything especially made up things which they all have to be made up things because none of it is truthful none of it is biblical as a matter of fact as a matter of fact we're starting to see something here where biblical values are under direct attack today they're under a direct attack by a new word today and this new word is this word called privilege and basically privilege is you know so they're trying to attack someone that comes from privilege and what is privilege privilege is things like having growing up with a mom and a dad you're privileged if you grew up with a mom and a dad you have privilege take four steps forward or whatever if you grew up with a mom and a dad who are still married you're extra privileged if you grew up this we're gonna get crazy now if you grew up with a mom who stayed home and raised you you are extremely privileged take 20 steps forward and this is being used as an attack on people who grew up in a family that followed the bible guess what they're being punished for it so we are punishing privilege in the in the the sick twisted world of socialism and trying to level the playing field what we're doing is punishing biblical values let me give you a quick study of the bible in two sentences what happens when you punish something you get less of it what happens when you reward something kids you get more of it so what is going to happen with this philosophy that we're heading into we are going to get less and less biblical families moms dads moms that stay home and what are we seeing today what's under attack the family's under attack state keepers at home are demonized today the economy is rigged against a one-income family today it's not an accident it's on purpose it's because the world is exactly the opposite is teaching exactly the opposite is that just a coincidence no it's because the god of this world is trying to undo everything that god is trying to do in the bible and guess what as more and more and more of the opposite of deuteronomy 5 21 and 2nd Thessalonians 3 and proverbs chapter 5 is more and more of that is pushed and privilege is punished biblical morality is punished and the twisted morality of satan is rewarded you're going to get more of that and less of this and guess what what's going to go up strife is going to go up strife everywhere strife in the family strife in the in the community strife in the nation strife in the world is going to go up you know what strife in your personal lives is going to go up and you find me a parent who has done everything the way the world has has done told them to do things and has lost their children and I'll show you someone that is full of strife and is full of conflict no matter what they believe or don't believe so the key to strife is managing desire and using the bible as the master key of what desire is good and what desire is bad how about this one land I probably shouldn't even went to this one lands a tough one lands a tough one because really in the bible so yeah it says don't covet your neighbor's land don't covet his property but really in the bible when it comes to land like the old testament is really the only time god actually gave people specific pieces of land so I mean we could this is probably more of a conversation after church but really all you can really go with is right of conquest on this one once a treaty signed you know that's it that's their land that's pretty much all you could do and then you go into collective defense and all those things turn to Proverbs chapter 10 that's not really the point of the sermon I'm talking about the individual tonight try how to get rid of strife in your life the main point is this all strife comes from people desiring things that aren't theirs that's the point of the sermon or having things that they shouldn't have because they desired things that weren't theirs and they followed through on those desires so you want no strife here's the answer make sure our desires are within biblical boundaries check your desires on a daily basis check the things that you want and measure them against the lens of the bible filter them through the truth of the bible and make sure you know hey is god okay with me having that is is is it mine is it mine to to have is it does it come from here's there's one does it come from my labor this thing that I'm desiring here's here's another one by the way that you could desire that's not yours information you could desire information and you could get information that you have no business having that's where gossip comes in that's where I mean you say what kind of strife you know strife can come from that gossip backbiting railing you name it it comes from wanting information that you have no business knowing if it doesn't affect you if it's not in your wheelhouse if it's not in your scope of control that god has given you your scope of authority then you shouldn't even want to know that information but the point is this unjust desire or did you turn to Proverbs chapter 10 unjust desire if followed through on again remember desire is just the beginning this is I mean this is kind of the nice thing about the Christian life if you know the bible and the better you know the bible you the better these things will pop out to you the better that oh okay this is not you know and look it's like a it's like a scale the more and more and more you learn the bible read the bible hear the bible preached these things will become more obvious to you earlier and let me tell you something one thing that you want to be very obvious to you very early is an unjust desire a want of something that you have no business wanting that you have no business having because if you're some fool that just follows the flesh and can't understand you know desires that come you you don't know the bible you just going to follow through on those desires and you're going to end up having a bunch of things that you should not have and then you are going to have nothing but strife so for the christian for the christian to follow through on unjust desires it's it's a fool's errand i'm not saying you're please understand me i'm not saying you are never going to have an unjust desire i'm not saying you're never going to have a lust but as a christian who knows the bible just like the sermon sunday morning the key to success in the christian life is identifying these things early and crushing them quickly that is the key to success and the more you know god's word the earlier the better your radar gets the farther out you can see that trouble coming but if you're some dummy it doesn't know the bible and you go out and just go out drinking with all your dummy friends what's the bible say some strange woman's going to get you you're going to get caught by this the stupidest things you're going to get caught by the simple things you want to be the one that has a hundred mile radar and now you have an unjust desire you have a lust and you're like no i'm after i'm after you know the favor of the lord here and you crush that thing like a bug and it can never hurt you it can never turn from that unjust desire to that unjust gain and the way that you have to look at is in proverbs chapter 10 here the way that you have to be like i really really want it though i really really want whatever this sin is or whatever this you know desire or lust that that is easily taking you down but what you have to tell yourself is that the bible is true that's all you have to tell yourself because you can't win there if you're saved tonight and you've trusted on the Lord Jesus Christ and he's sealed you you cannot win with unjust gain you can't win that game it's like playing a game of chess that you like it's impossible to win why who would play look at proverbs chapter 10 verse number two i mean there's so many verses about this but basically this is it right here it says treasures of wickedness profit nothing but righteousness delivereth from death you can't win the game you want to get the radars you can see a hundred miles out you want to crush it right away because following through with it you know you're going to lose you can't win anyways nothing will come from it that is good for you or anyone around you and look the fall will be worse than you could ever imagine and the damage will be worse than you ever saw coming and even to those that aren't you to people around you look at Judas how did his unjust gain work for him he went back he didn't even keep the money he got the silver he went back and he threw the silver back into the temple and they went out and they didn't know what to do with it they're like they just went they bought this field and he literally felt so he literally was so overcome and so crushed that he went out and he killed himself in that field and he wasn't even saved imagine you there is no way to win with unjust gain but the good news is if you get the radar dialed in and you can crush it early you can get rid of all the strife you don't have to have strife in your life can you imagine having a strife free life i mean at least from the things you do anyway not to say you're not going to run into wicked evil people and persecution and all these those things but at least don't bring strife in don't be a strife factory and this is how you can get strife out of the bounds of your life out of your home out of your life out of your family out of your marriage don't desire things that aren't yours and when you do get rid of it quickly let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer