07-01-12 AM - Se7en Series - Envy

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Hebrew 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress and let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.”

Sin is anything that keeps us from being what God created us to be.

Envy is the desire for other’s traits, status, abilities or situations.

1. It’s one of the Ten Commandments.  “Thou shalt not covet.”
2. It’s the one sin on the list that has no pleasure in it whatsoever. All of the other sins can be enjoyed for a moment, or a temporary period of time.

Anger.  Ever felt the relief from just riding out your anger on somebody?
Greed, entices us with visions of expensive vacations and fast cars.
Sloth, who doesn’t enjoy sleeping in?  Putting things off till tomorrow.
Lust,  I don’t even have to explain why lust is enjoyable for a season.

Matthew 20, Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.

1.“For the kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of an estate.”  And the owner of the estate in this parable represents God.  So it says, “The Kingdom is like the owner of an estate who went out early one morning (6am) to hire workers for his vineyard.”  “He agreed to pay the normal daily wage, and sent them out to work.  At 9 o’clock in the morning, he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing, so he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. At noon and again around 3 o’clock, he did the same thing. At 5 o’clock that evening, he went to town again and saw more people standing around.  He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ And they replied, ‘Because no one has hired us.’
So the owner of the estate told them to go on out and join the others in my vineyard.  That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in to pay them beginning with the last workers first.  When those hired at 5 o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage.”

“When those hired earlier came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more, but they, too, were paid a day’s wage.  When they received their pay, they protested.  ‘Those people only worked one hour and yet you paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’  He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair.  Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage?  Take it and go.  I wanted to pay the last workers the same as you.  Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money?
Should you be angry because I am kind?”.

                                  Five Negative Traits of Envy.
1. Envy robs me of happiness.                                                                        

Proverbs 14:30 “A relaxed attitude lengthens life, jealousy rots it away.”

Envy causes stress, depression, and high blood pressure.

2. Next, envy causes conflict in my life.

James 4:2 “You want what you don’t have so you scheme and kill to get it.”

3. Envy makes me a resentful person. Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own. Harold Coffin

Titus 3:3 Our lives are full of resentment and envy.  We hated others and they hated us.

4. It leads to other sins.
Cain was envious of his brother, Abel, and it led him to murder.
Jacob was jealous of his brother, Esau, and it led him to betray him and steal his birthright from him.
Joseph’s brothers were jealous so they sold him into slavery and they lied.
King Saul was jealous of young, David, and spent a portion of his life consumed with anger in trying to kill him.
Jesus’ disciples were envious of each other, and that envy turned friends into adversaries and they were fighting over Jesus’ attention.
James 3:16 “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and evil practice.”                                                                                              

5. Envy distracts me from God’s purpose for my life.                                      

Psalm 37:8 “Do not envy others.  It only leads to harm.”

Let’s look at three steps to overcome envy.
1. Stop comparing myself to others.

Galatians 6:4 “Be sure to do what you should, for then you will enjoy personal satisfaction of having done your work well.  Then you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.”

2. I have to start being thankful for who I am and what I have.                  

Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

3. Show kindness to the person I envy. Tough one

Galatians,5:19-21 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,  20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Godly actions precede Godly feelings.