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Nipping the Bud in the Bud

SERIES: In Tables of Stone #11 of 11

2008-12-07

PRODUCTION #: 1130

SPEAKER: Shawn Boonstra

Ever been happy with something new right up until the moment you see someone who has something newer?

A friend recently told me about a remarkable trick that utterly astounded him. He was on this website where they took four cards from a deck of playing cards and showed them on the screen. Then the site told him to pick one of the cards in his mind.

You don’t click the mouse. You don’t press a key. You don’t touch the cards or the computer in any way. You just think in your head about one of the cards.

“Seven of clubs. No. No, nine of spades, yeah, nine of spades. Yeah.

After he picked it, all in his head, the site told him to click a button. That’s it. All the cards disappeared but then they came back with the exception of the card he was thinking of. That card was gone.

Well, it kind of spooked him so he tried it again, because there was no way the computer could possibly know which card he was thinking about. So he tried it again with four different cards. But this time he stepped away from the computer, way back across the room, as if putting a little more distance between him and that computer would keep it from reading his mind.

“Maybe…uh…um…queen of hearts. Yeah. That’s it.”

Then he picked another card, quickly ran up to the computer and clicked on the button, and then backed away again so the computer couldn’t get him. What do you think happened this time? All four cards disappeared, and when they came back, the card he was thinking of was missing.

Now, before you think my friend is crazy, you should probably know he’s a rational guy— raised and educated in the secular and scientific traditions of the world. He also happens to be a man of faith. But his default way of thinking is usually, “There’s got to be a natural explanation for this, because there usually is.”

But when it came to this computer card trick, it utterly baffled him. How in the world could that computer read his mind? He tried it a few more times and sure enough, it happened every single time. The card he chose did not reappear on the computer screen, which tempted him to think: Is there something supernatural going on?

Now, again, this is a rational person I’m talking about—someone who understands and respects the premises of natural law. But, at the same time, he understands something about spiritual realities, too. He is a Christian who believes in the supernatural, and so the question was: Is this trick something cultic or demonic?

Now, he didn’t think so. But he wasn’t sure, because how in the world does a computer figure out which card he is thinking of? Finally, it began to drive him crazy, so he went downstairs at work and told his friend, Steve, what was going on.

“Steve, I’m on line looking at these cards, and I just can’t believe what I’m seeing. How in the world can my computer know which card I’m thinking about? It’s like it’s reading my mind or something.”

“You mean you don’t know how that trick works?”

“Well, no, I don’t.”

All they do is take completely different cards from the original four that were there. You’re so busy concentrating on the one you picked that you didn’t even notice that none of the original four came back.

There it was. Mystery solved. However, much my friend felt like a fool for being deceived by something so simple, he was actually relieved, very relieved, to know that nobody was reading his mind.

His experience raises a pretty good point about the sanctity of what goes on between your earlobes. I mean, let’s face it. No matter how open you might be, no matter how spontaneous you are, no matter how much you might show people your feelings and emotions, we all have thoughts that are buried deep inside our minds. Stuff that only we know about and really don’t want anyone else to know.

So when it comes to something like this—the Internet card trick—and it seems like someone or something is able to read your mind, to get inside your most intimate space, it’s a little scary. You’ve got to admit, it would be a whole lot worse than having someone read your diary. It’s bad enough that our body language gives so much away.

It’s been said that your body language says more about what you’re thinking than your actual words do. But what if someone could actually read your mind? It’s pretty scary stuff.

Maybe you remember that famous novel written by George Orwell, right after World War II, called 1984. It was Orwell’s vision of the future—where every move you made was carefully monitored by the state, an institution known as Big Brother. Now, I‘m not talking about walking into a bank, or into a convenience store, or when you zoom past a red light when you can be pretty sure somebody saw you when you’re being taped. In Orwell’s fantasy, we’re talking about someone—a live person—watching your every move, even in your own home.

In fact, in that book, it gets even worse than that, because people were under the scrutiny of what was called the “Thought Police,” and their job was to punish wrong thoughts. Now, it’s been a very long time since I read that book, but it was mandatory reading back in the eighth grade. I remember that in one part, George Orwell wrote about a character like this:

“Whether he wrote ‘Down With Big Brother,’ or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed—would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper—the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.”

Well, fortunately Orwell’s fantasy for 1984, more than 20 years after the fact, turned out to be nothing but a fantasy. Fortunately, there is still no such thing as a computer that can read your mind.

But at the same time, the Bible teaches that God does care about our thoughts and He knows them. But there is a significant difference. He is not doing it because He is looking for an opportunity to punish us, like “The Thought Police.”

No, on the contrary, God cares about our thoughts because he wants to protect us from the kinds of things that are going to sooner or later bring heartache and sorrow—not just to ourselves, but also to the people around us.

I guess the bottom line is this: if we can surrender even our thoughts to God and stop thinking about wrong things, then we stand a pretty good chance of not doing those things. You’ve probably noticed if you tune in regularly, that we’ve been doing a number of programs on the Ten Commandments. If you’ve missed a few, you can find them all in the It Is Written television program archives online.

This has been an important series of presentations, because we’ve discovered that even though the moral code found in the Ten Commandments is thousands of years old, it still has incredible relevance for life in the 21st century. Everything from not taking the Lord’s name in vain, to not stealing, lying or killing—everything still makes sense for today. That’s important because our way of thinking has changed over the last few years.

In the Western world, we’ve been bombarded with secularism and atheism, and the message that seems to come through is that there really isn’t such a thing as right and wrong, only what is right and wrong for you. Let me read you a quote from one of the world’s most popular atheists, a man by the name of Richard Dawkins. He said, “The universe we observe today has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but pointless indifference.”

Now, let’s think about that for a minute. No evil and no good? This is a brilliant man—a scholar, a writer and a lecturer. He’s saying that at the base of the universe, there are no concepts of good and evil. Now, I know that if you probe Mr. Dawkins a little more deeply, he’s not going to mean that things like the Rwandan genocide or the Holocaust aren’t evil.

I’ve read what he writes, and he does believe that. He thinks that we developed a sense of morality all by ourselves. But he’s saying that right and wrong don’t really exist apart from us. That sentiment comes from not believing in a higher moral power or God. You see, if God doesn’t exist, then the only place we can say we get our moral values is from ourselves.

If that’s true, then who gets to decide what’s right and wrong, or evil and good? We all have different views, depending on our backgrounds, our cultures, our preferences, and our education. So, what one person calls evil another person calls good. You really have nowhere you can build a solid foundation for everybody.

To say that evil and good don’t really exist outside of our self isn’t very convincing if you really think about it. I somehow doubt that the parents of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1993, would be too impressed by all the postmodern arguments about moral relativity. And very few people really believe that “might makes right.”

But if we don’t make a higher authority that sets the bar for us, something to tell us what’s right, then why not? Maybe might really does make right. Yet we instinctively know that something is wrong with that. Good and evil really do exist, just like the law of gravity.

And you find good and evil outlined in the Ten Commandment law of God, which brings me back to the 10th commandment, which reads this way (Exodus 20:17):

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

This commandment takes morality to a whole new level, to the level of our thoughts. If you can control what is in your head, controlling your mouth and the rest of your body should be comparatively easy. It’s about nipping the bud in the bud.

I once read about a rabbi who used to summarize the Ten Commandments in the shortest phrases possible, and he summarized this commandment as, “You shall not covet.” Then he realized that wasn’t quite right. It’s not exactly what the commandment says. In fact, the Bible tells us that God created us with passions and desires.

He created the world with things that delight and dazzle our senses. He gave us the ability to enjoy those things. So it’s not technically wrong to want things. The problem comes from the objects of your desire, not the desire itself.

Basically, God is looking to protect us from envy, that horrible feeling you get, the one that eats you alive and dominates you when you know that someone has more than you do or has something you want. I’m going to guess that I don’t really have to describe this much, because you’ve been there and you know what I’m talking about.

Joe lived in a townhouse, and one day he brought home a shiny new red car. Nothing fancy, nothing ostentatious, just a shiny new red car to get himself back and forth to work. But the next day Joe’s next-door neighbor came home with a bigger, nicer and fancier, shiny new red car. It was almost like the neighbor was jealous of Joe. Well, I bet you might guess what happened next.

Joe started feeling a little jealous. Then a couple of days later, two doors down, another neighbor bought a bigger and shinier red car than both of them. I know we smile about it, but that’s because we’ve been there. The problem is as old as the human race.

Lycurgus was the father of the ancient kingdom of Sparta. He became so concerned about the economic envy between the different classes in his city, that he created a new economy. All gold and silver had to be turned in, and he ordered that some cheap iron be used instead. Iron was so cheap and common that people needed carts and oxen to carry their money around with them.

Suddenly buying and selling became a huge burden, and a whole host of evils all but disappeared. Who was going to rob someone if they couldn’t hide the theft? Who was going to take a bribe if they couldn’t hide the ill-gotten gain?

A great deal of luxury and ostentatious living was curtailed because it just became too difficult to buy things. All of a sudden, people were more content with owning the little bit they did have. The fact that story stuck around for so many years just goes to prove that envy is an old, old problem.

Maybe you’ve heard the story of the man who was given a special gift. Whatever he wanted, whatever he wished for would be his. There was only one little catch. No matter what he got, his neighbor got double.

The man wished for a big estate—a big farm with land and servants—and he got it. But then his neighbor got an estate and farm twice as big with twice as many servants. He wanted a beautiful new carriage and he got it, but then his neighbor got two beautiful new carriages.

He wanted a stable full of racing horses and he got it. But then his neighbor got a stable twice the size with twice as many horses. On and on it went. No matter what he got, he was consumed with envy, because his neighbor got twice as much. Finally, unable to stand it anymore, unable to even enjoy his newfound riches, he wished he could be blind in one eye.

Let’s just stop and be honest about this. Think about how much better our lives would be if we took this commandment to heart. Of course, in many ways this might be the hardest commandment to keep.

I mean, most folks don’t have that much of a problem not committing murder, or theft, or adultery, or idolatry. But not being jealous when someone has more than you—that’s not quite so easy, because you don’t have to sneak around at night or lurk in back alleys with sunglasses to do this. It’s a sin that you can commit in broad daylight, in a room full of people, and nobody will know it except for God.

So let me give you a biblical principle that can really help, from the writings of Paul. Listen to this (Philippians 4:11-13):

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Here’s another one from Paul (Hebrews 13:5):

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”

No matter who you are, you’re going to have more than somebody else. And I promise you that somebody else is going to have more than you. That’s just the way it is. So how are you supposed to deal with it? By being content—being thankful for what you have.

There are these stories that go around about multibillionaire Larry Ellison being envious of Bill Gates because Bill Gates is richer than he is. Now, I can’t confirm whether or not it’s true, and I don’t know for sure that it is, but maybe if Mr. Ellison, or people like that, focused on all these other poor multimillionaires who have less than he does, he could feel a whole lot better!

In ancient Rome, some ambassadors from another country came to try and bribe Dentatus, who was the consul of Rome. They found him living in some little unpretentious cottage. As they approached they saw that he was making lunch. He was boiling a few turnips and that was it. As they saw that meal, they knew right then and there that theirs was a lost cause. It was obvious that money wasn’t going to do the trick, because how in the world do you bribe somebody who’s happy with turnips?

There was this couple who had been living in the same home for years. But suddenly, very dissatisfied with their home and wanting something more, they asked an agent to sell it while they looked for another one. One day, as they scanned the ads in the paper, they read about this house that seemed like the home of their dreams.

“Wow, let’s go see it,” they said, all excited about the prospects of their new dream house. But, as it turns out, they were reading the ad their own agent put in the paper for their own home. You know, it’s amazing how often, if we counted our blessings and looked at them like someone else might, it’s amazing how often we would be happy with what we have.

Listen, who hasn’t struggled with this sin? It is a sin, because the Bible lists it right there in the Ten Commandments, and then the Bible tells us sin is the transgression of God’s law. To some degree, we’ve all broken this 10th and final commandment. So what are we going to do? The answer is remarkably simple.

You turn to the one who has never broken any of these commandments. You go to Jesus, who died so that we can be forgiven, not just for coveting, but for everything—all our wrong thoughts and all our wrong actions. Think of all the evil, the suffering, the pain in our world caused just by greed and jealousy. That’s why God gives us this 10th commandment, to nip the bud in the bud before it buds into its deadly fruit.

Jesus can free us from the tyranny of jealousy. He knows that these things will eat you alive if you don’t get them under control. So He offers to free us from it if we let Him.

Someone once said that a key to living a good life is to dwell on Jesus. His life. His character. His deeds. His selflessness. His goodness. His willingness to forgive. The idea is that by doing this, we will become a little more like Jesus. That is a gift we really shouldn’t refuse. In fact, to be like Jesus is something you should covet and God won’t mind a bit. You know, jealousy is something that comes pretty easily for most of us. The only way to really solve it is to bring it to Jesus. So, why don’t we pray together right now?

PRAYER:
Lord, in this world of material prosperity, where everybody seems to have so much, it’s easy for us to get our focus in the wrong place. So right now we stand at the foot of the cross and see that Jesus gave up everything to save us. Things aren’t important to Jesus, people are. So teach us, Lord, to see Jesus as important and not the things around us. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Scriptures Used in “Nipping the Bud in the Bud”

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
—Exodus 20:17

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
—Philippians 4:11-13

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
—Hebrews 13:5