Battle with Jealousy
Introduction-
For the last several weeks, we have looked at different character flaws (giants) (obstacles) in our lives to help us live more productive lives.
We have laughed at some of our fears that keep us from accomplishing more in our lives.
We can all put a face of others that worry too much. Not any of us.
We all know “someone else” that needs a good scolding from God.
We all know someone in our mind that we feel is too far gone for the Lord to save.
Last week we took a hard look at discouragement.
Judging by what was said afterwards, we all have faced discouragement before in our lives.
I have tried to show you from God’s Word that we all struggle with these things in our lives.
It is taking the time with God to be honest.
Everyone is looking for answers…not everyone is ready to hear the answers from God.
The answers we need are found in God’s Word, found in a relationship with God. It is okay to ask questions.
So this morning as we look at God’s Word on jealousy- Don’t think right way of “someone else”, be praying Lord if that is me, I want you to get it out of my life so I can be set free to be the person you called me to be. Not who I wish I was. Not the one I pretend to be, but who you want me to be.
Prayer-
Father today as we go to your word, allow my heart to be open and allow me to hear from you. May I acknowledge that jealousy is a sin that will keep me from receiving your best for my life because I will have been looking at others lives instead of my own life. Amen.
Jealousy by definition is “a feeling of being envious of something or someone.”
It is wanting… something that someone else has that does not belong to you. (Repeat)
Jealousy, envy, resentment, anger, selfishness, deception… these feelings can begin in early childhood and carry over into our lives. We do not have to teach a child any of these traits- they learn them all by themselves. Our jobs as parents, is to teach them to not have them in their lives and show them how destructive they can be.
Genesis 37:3-11
We see from the book of Genesis which means “beginning” that jealousy is not new thing but continues to be a problem with people today.
Joseph’s dad Israel had a ton of kids and then had a son late in life. One set of kids all grown up and a young boy born late in life that meant the world to him.
To the young one, he made a coat of many colors and Joseph wore it in the face of his brothers.
When the brothers saw that the father loved him more than them, they became jealous.
When he began telling them a dream that they would bow down to him, they became not only jealous but enraged with anger. It went to a new level.
God worked in that situation for his honor and glory but jealousy does not always have a happy ending.
This morning we need to look at the (1) root cause of jealousy and we need to find the (2) remedy for jealousy.
So it is a two part message this morning.
It happens in every one of our lives.
We each handle it in a different way.
Some of us explode in jealousy where others are given ulcers and some of us hold it in and cause ourselves to have ulcers. Either way, jealousy causes destruction.
Okay, here goes- Finding the root cause of jealousy
Root cause of jealousy
If the characteristics of jealousy are resentment, envious, covetousness-
We quickly see that jealousy is sin. These characteristics are not of God and should not be in a believer’s life.
We do not like to call it sin because then we would have to admit that we are at fault when we allow it into our lives.
Cain’s motive for killing Abel (Genesis 4) was because he felt that God had shown favor on Abel instead of Cain. Truth is, Abel gave his best to God and Cain brought a mediocre sacrifice.
The Prodical Son- A boy that wanted to leave home and squander the family inheritance comes back home repentant and desiring to make amends with his father. It is the son that stayed home who was jealous- why should you have the big party? I am the one that stayed home and I did not leave- why did you not have a party for the one that stayed instead of the one that left and is now back.
Jealousy not dealt with turns from resentment to hatred and hatred turns to actions that cause us to go deeper into sin.
Sin will cause us to be jealous- sin will cause our heart to fall away from God and react in an ungodly way to bring justice as we see it.
Sin will always take you farther than you want to go.
We live in a fallen world where bad things happen to good people and we wonder why God would allow those things to happen. He did not bring these things on…we bring those things on by allowing our evil hearts to get away from God.
We can debate all day on wither we need better gun control or what is the mental state of the person pulling the trigger.
The one thing I know for sure is that it is a evil heart full of hatred that could kill so many people.
That kind of hatred is what causes car bombings, nations to fight nations.
Desiring to hurt someone because of the demographic location of where they live.
Desiring to discriminate against someone and cause them to be put down because of the color of their skin.
Jealousy is ugly and it comes in all shapes and sizes and all colors- but the bottom line is hatred.
Jealousy causes Destruction in your life or in someone else’s.
Illustration slaying the giants in your life by David Jeremiah
The ancient Greeks told the story of a swift athlete who came in second. He stood at the finish line, huffing and puffing as the crowd cheered- not for him but for the winner. The second place finisher had to stand there as they brought the victors crown and the other prizes. He had to stand there with the others as gratulatory speeches were made in the victors honor. And he had to walk through town to reach home, hearing nothing but the name of the winner on the lips of everyone he saw. The victor had a great statue erected in his honor, right in the center of town. The second place finisher had to see it everyday of his life, and he came to think of himself as a loser. The envy and jealousy began to take charge of his soul until he could accomplish almost nothing from day to day. Why hadn’t he been the winner? Why hadn’t he been able to find within himself those two or three strides that separated the champion from the chump? Every night, as sleep eluded him, he crept out into the darkness and made his way to the victor’s statue. There he chiseled away a few more bits of the stone from the foundation. Each night the great marble figure was weaker. But one night he got more than he bargained for. He chiseled away one more bit of stone, and the massive athletic figure cracked loudly and slide forward. The great marble champion crashed down on the little man with the chisel, and death came instantly. The athlete had been crushed by the very image of the man he despised. Some would say the man with the chisel didn’t die in that one crashing instant, but by tiny increments. It was the weight of jealousy that ultimately destroyed him.
Power, Performance, lust, wanting to fit in with the cool kids, wanting to belong to the personal circles that others do not have access too. Wanting what does not belong to you- can all cause jealousy if not dealt with properly. It is Sin! And it will destroy us and it will destroy others around us.
King David with his power of being the King of Israel desired a women he should not have, he was jealous that he could not have Bethsheba, king David used his power, used his influence, and it caused him not only to take a women that did not belong to him, but went to horrific measures including death of an innocent man to cover it up.
Nathan, again with King David describes a rich man with many sheep taking a sheep from a man who had a few. King David angered by such a selfish deed and demanded justice! Until Nathan said that it was King David himself who was the guilty man. He could have had many different women and he had to have Bethsheba, the wife of another man- you are the guilty one! Jealousy has gone from a feeling to action and it caused you to do things that are unthinkable!
Jealousy rises its ugly head in relationships.
Jealousy rises it head in the work place, and in our homes.
Anytime we get away from the moral compass of God and do things purely out of selfish desires, it will destroy us.
All the ugly things that are going on in the world will not be solved in the halls of congress- they will be solved by calling out to God and repenting of our sins and our lack of love for a God that has done everything to have a relationship with us.
So let’s see what God says would be a remedy for the sin of jealousy.
To be able to fix a problem, you have a identify it- Jealousy, anger, envy, selfishness, they are all sin when acted upon and not dealt with.
Remedy of Jealousy
Galatians 5:19-20
“The acts of the flesh are obvious; sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
The problem is walking in the fleshly desires mentioned and the remedy for these sins are to walk in the Spirit of Almighty God.
Life in the world or life in the Spirit of God! The difference is eternal!
One side either does not know or does not care- the other side should be walking in the Spirit of God for our lives and being sensitive who God would have us speak to about kingdom matters.
Since when did this world become so hostile to someone else just because we don’t agree with them? That we cannot agree to disagree.
Since when did we lose civility?
The problem today is bigger than any one issue! They are symptoms of the bigger problem.
It is the Anti-God idealogy! If you are not like I want you to be God…than I will make my own idea of God and you must fit into that mold or I don’t want any part of you.
If we as God’s people do not wrap our heads around the principals of God, we will wrap our minds around the things of the world that will pull us away from God. I make no apologies on that statement.
Paul talking about Grace- 1 Tim. 1:14
“I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me, abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”
2 Corinthians 10:5
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
AS we close,
The more the Lord is in our lives, the less the world is in our lives.
We must bring the ungodly thoughts and actions under the captivity of Christ so that we can live our lives pleasing to God.
The word of God tells us that we need to ‘demolish” those things, to “destroy” them, to get them ‘completely out” of our lives where they cannot resurrect themselves.
The remedy to man’s problem with sin is asking God for forgiveness and getting closer to Him.
We need God’s people to fall onto their knees and ask God to forgive us for the things we do and let God rekindle our hearts.
A time of prayer
