Do Not Let Your Thirst for God Be Diverted by Covetousness

Introduction

This Sunday, November 2, 2025, Pastor Renathe YAO continued, at ICC Montreal, the series begun two months earlier by Pastor Celestin on the theme of first love. He did so by approaching the question from an angle that touches the heart of every disciple: thirst. A thirst that must stay turned toward God, and yet risks at every moment being diverted toward something else.

The title of the message says it all: "Do Not Let Your Thirst for God Be Diverted by Covetousness." This is not a new message, as the preacher himself points out. These are reminders. But reminders that the Lord insists on giving back to his Church in this season, because covetousness is nothing other than a form of thirst, a thirst that is no longer directed toward God, but toward something else.

The pastor invites you to a communal meditation from Genesis 2 and 3. He proposes that you slowly reread what happened at the beginning, to understand why the devil still uses, today, the same strategy as in the garden of Eden.

Outline of the message

1. Thirst: the engine of first love

For two months, the Church has been guided through the theme of first love. Pastor Renathe YAO makes a direct connection: speaking of the bride, speaking of thirst, speaking of love, is speaking of the same reality. The apostle has led us into a very prophetic time, with a message that the Lord is downloading step by step for his Church in North America, and, he specifies, for all nations.

The Lord expects his bride to truly occupy her place as bride. A bride must remain thirsty for her husband. She must not waste her thirst elsewhere. That is why the preacher insists: the question is not "are you religious?" but "where is your thirst going?"

2. Eden: nakedness without shame, image of intimacy

The pastor takes Genesis 2, verse 25: "The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." He notes something strange: God does not say that the lions or the tigers were naked. He mentions this only for the man and the woman. Why?

Because the garden of Eden represents the place of intimacy. Adam and Eve were in communion with God. The Lord often came out in the evening and came to talk with them. He spent time with them, in real intimacy. At that time, clothing was not needed, because communion with God was direct. The pastor explains it with a very simple image: clothes are like a physical veil. Adam and Eve were without a veil, without devices, without clothes, and they were not ashamed of it.

This is the normal state of a bride before her husband. There is not even an awareness of nakedness. You are not thinking about that. You are simply there, just as you are, before the one who loves you.

3. The serpent's strategy: another seed, another thirst

The pastor then moves to Genesis 3. The serpent approaches the woman. He begins to speak. The preacher stresses a point: in the Bible, the word is a seed. The devil brought his own seed.

Up until that moment, Adam and Eve had only the seed of God. They had conversations only with God, and it was God's words they received. But then, the serpent came to speak to the woman. There was an exchange. She received the devil's seed. She did not keep it to herself: she shared it with her husband, and both of them received a foreign seed.

The preacher draws a weighty observation from this: the devil, for his part, is neither clever nor creative. He does not rewrite history. He knows that what worked yesterday will work today and will work tomorrow. He has used the same tactics since the foundation of the world. The strategy he set up to bring down Adam and Eve is the same strategy he wants to use to bring you down. He simply uses different variations to distract you, because he is not going to come talk to you about a tree. There is no more tree. He has other schemes, other strategies to bring you to fall exactly as Adam and Eve fell.

4. When thirst is diverted: shame and flight

Genesis 3, verse 7: as soon as they accepted the serpent's word and put it into practice, their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together to make themselves loincloths.

The pastor compares this scene to a married woman who is unfaithful to her husband: she will be ashamed before him, she will find it hard to look him in the eye. That is what happens to Adam and Eve. They are uncomfortable. They are no longer at ease. They hide behind the trees. They do not want God to see them.

In verse 9, the LORD calls out: "Where are you?" This is not because God could not see him. It is because God no longer recognized this pure man he had created. He no longer recognized this Adam who was thirsty for his Creator, this Adam who, when he heard the voice of his Bridegroom, would run toward him to hear his words. Adam was no longer at the meeting place even before God arrived. His burning desires had gone out.

The devil had sown disorder. He had sown a thirst that was no longer turned toward God, but was now turned toward something else. As the preacher sums it up: "As soon as the five senses were switched on, everything was perverted, their thirst was hijacked."

5. Do not waste your thirst on covetousness

In verse 16, God addresses the woman and speaks these words: "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."

Pastor Renathe YAO draws a prophetic reading from this passage: these words touch the bride of Christ. They touch the Church. Because the humanity that was in Adam, when God speaks his word over Eve, he speaks as to a bride-humanity, a future bride who was to occupy this role and who failed. Originally, man's desires were meant to turn first toward God, not first toward his husband or his wife.

The thirst that was originally meant to turn toward God turned toward man. This is where covetousness begins: your thirst changes destination. It turns toward man, toward things, toward everything the devil puts in your path. And because your human spouse was never designed to carry the weight of a divine thirst, you live in a difficult cycle.

Here is the preacher's reminder for this season: do not let covetousness divert your thirst for God. Covetousness is simply a thirst that has changed address. A thirst directed elsewhere.

Key takeaways

• Covetousness is not a "separate" sin, it is your thirst that has changed direction. It remains a thirst, but it no longer goes toward God.
• Eden describes your normal place: without a veil before your Bridegroom. Intimacy with God knows no shame as long as your thirst stays directed toward him.
• The devil invents nothing. He replays Genesis 3 with new scenery. What brought down Adam and Eve can bring you down if you do not stay watchful.
• The serpent's word is a seed. Receiving his word and putting it into practice opens your eyes to what God never wanted you to look at.
• A diverted thirst always leads to flight and shame. We hide, we cover ourselves, we no longer dare look God in the eye.

Personal application

• Where is your thirst going today, honestly? Toward God, or toward something else that you call by another name so as not to name covetousness?
• What "seeds" are you listening to daily that do not come from God? In what you watch, what you read, what you listen to, what you let take root in you?
• Is there an area of your life where you hide from God like Adam and Eve behind the trees? What is holding you back from presenting yourself to him just as you are?
• Are you still wearing "fig leaves" of your own making (justifications, cover-ups), instead of letting God clothe you?
• What concrete step can you take this week to redirect your thirst toward God: a daily time of presence, a fast from content, giving up an identified covetousness?

Verses cited

• Genesis 2:25 · The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
• Genesis 3:1-6 · The serpent seduces the woman and presents her with another word.
• Genesis 3:7 · The eyes of both were opened, they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together.
• Genesis 3:8-9 · They hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God. The LORD called out, "Where are you?"
• Genesis 3:13 · The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
• Genesis 3:16 · Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

FAQ

Is covetousness only a sexual sin?

No. In this message, Pastor Renathe YAO defines covetousness as "a form of thirst that is not directed toward God." It can target possessions, recognition, a project, a person, a status. The sin is not having thirst, it is having moved the thirst.

Why does the preacher speak so much of the Church as "bride"?

Because the ongoing series at ICC Montreal, opened by Pastor Celestin, works through the theme of first love. The link is direct: the Church is presented as the bride of Christ, called to remain thirsty for her Bridegroom. Losing that thirst means losing first love.

How can I concretely recognize that my thirst has been diverted?

The pastor gives a clear indicator drawn from Genesis 3: shame, flight, the making of cover-ups. When you start hiding from God, dodging your appointment with him, finding justifications, it is the same pattern as Eden: your thirst has already gone elsewhere.