Sunday Morning Worship & Word | Pastor Whitley “Envy”
by Nathan Whitley
May 1, 2022 · First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Genesis 37:1-11, Exodus 20:5, Romans 1:29, Galatians 5:19-21, Mark 7:21-22, Proverbs 14:30, Proverbs 27:4, Genesis 35, James 3:14-16, 1 Peter 2:1-3, 1 Peter 1:22-23

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/nathan-whitley--sunday-morning-worship-word-10
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
just keep the same spirit of worship we're going to go to the word of the lord and just turn with me to genesis chapter number 37 as you're doing that allow me to give honor to our leadership the great ministry of this church we love bishop mccool and sister mccool pastor and sister jamie they are in nashville uh this weekend doing a marriage retreat for the batsons and we're praying that the lord would bless them today and this weekend and give honor to pastor anthony and sister kelly as well we anticipate greatly the arrival of callaway we are ready for callaway to get here he might be here today it's like jesus coming you just don't know when might be today tomorrow noon or night we're ready for him though aren't we amen genesis chapter number 37 a familiar story i want to draw some principles out of today i might not scream and holler and spit today but i i do want to minister to you from the word of the lord genesis 37 beginning at verse number one and jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land of canaan these are the generations of jacob joseph being 17 years old was feeding the flock with his brethren and the lad was with the sons of bilhah and with the sons of zilpha his father's wives and joseph brought unto his father their evil report now israel loved joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors and when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him their brother their own flesh and blood and joseph dreamed a dream and he told it to his brethren and they hated him yet the more and he said to them here i pray you this dream which i've dreamed for behold we were binding sheaves in the field and lo my sheaf arose and also stood upright and behold your sheaves stood round about and made ambitions to my sheath and his brethren said to him shalt thou indeed reign over us or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us and they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words and he dreamed yet another dream told it to his brethren and said behold i have dreamed to dream more behold the sun the moon the eleven stars made obesions to me and he told it to his father and to his brethren and his father rebuked him and said unto him what is this dream that thou hast dreamed shall i and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth look at verse 11 and his brethren envied him someone say envied and his father observed the saying this morning i want to give you a warning poison jealousy and envy y'all remember that you remember that as my 80s friends will remember that and we put that on everything back when we were kids we put that on everything couldn't because it was poison right it was warning us not to open it touch it eat it taste it anything i'm going to give you a warning today about the poison of jealousy and envy won't you help me pray for a moment father we thank you for your spirit that's in the sanctuary we thank you for your word that is relevant even to us today the things that those who live before us in the word of god god that they experienced that they felt we can feel even now we can draw principles and lessons from but i pray that you would help me to say the right thing in the right way today that those who are here would receive your word in jesus name we pray and everyone said amen won't you clap your hands again this morning unto the lord poison jealousy and envy jacob was the limping prince of god he was chosen of god to be the progenitor of god's people jacob was chosen over his twin brother esau esau became bitterly jealous of jacob's favor even if jacob had connived esau out of the birthright and consequently he had deceived their father isaac to give him the family inheritance over esau esau's jealousy of jacob drove him to such anger and rage that he wanted to kill him we should also note that joseph's mother rachel became very jealous of jacob's other wife leah which was consequently rachel's sister rachel became jealous that her sister was having children with jacob and she wasn't you go back to isaac isaac was jacob and esau's father who knew something about jealousy and envy isaac was the beloved son of abraham who happened to have a son also by the name of ishmael the difference between ishmael and isaac was that ishmael was the was the son of abraham's handmaid hagar the egyptian isaac on the other hand was the son of abraham's wife sarah god's promises to abraham and his future family would only come through isaac not ishmael the older brother ishmael mocked and ridiculed his younger half-brother to the point that abraham had to send ishmael and his mother away so when we get to the story of jacob and joseph we shouldn't be surprised that a family's history of jealousy and envy would suddenly reappear in fact joseph's brothers weren't as fond of joseph as jacob their father was joseph didn't help matters by disclosing that he had dreams suggesting that his family would one day bow down in front of him i want to talk a little bit and define jealousy and envy today because jealousy and envy are really two sides of the same coin envy can be defined as the feeling of unhappiness at the blessing and fortune of others geared towards what others have and what we may think we don't have jealousy is sometimes geared towards what we do have and the fear of losing it now jealousy and envy are very similar and sometimes they are synonymous with each other used in scripture so if you find envy in one text in one translation of scripture another translation of that very text will uh will will swatch out or interchange envy and jealousy uh very often because uh they're very similar in their symptoms jerry bridges in his book respectable sins says sinful jealousy occurs when we are afraid someone is going to become equal to or even superior to us let that just kind of marinate in your spirit for a second now we find jealousy as a theme throughout scripture god is described as jealous however god's jealousy is in reference to his desire to have our complete affection god is described as a jealous god in exodus chapter uh number two and verse 20. he's jealous over us because he does not want us to worship any other god other than him he wants our affections he wants our worship he's jealous over us as he has redeemed us and brought us unto himself paul would say in the new testament that the churches he would write to the churches and say that he was jealous over them he did not want them to be led away by false doctrine or errors so he was jealous over them because he had burped birth them in his ministry but godly jealousy isn't our topic for this sermon but there is another kind of jealousy that i'll briefly mention today this other type of jealousy some have experienced and it's the kind of jealousy in relationships this type of jealousy is the kind of jealousy to do with what we have and the fear of losing it much of this has to do with insecurity such jealousy is seen when a boyfriend doesn't want his girlfriend talking to other guys or hanging out with her friends the boy wants to be the sole possessor of said girl that is not a relationship that is a poisonous toxic environment i've seen this in friendships too a young lady has friends but one friend in particular wants her attention at the cost of having other relationships that's not a friendship that's a a toxic concoction that will kill any i friendship you i'm not going to spit screaming holler today but i am going to talk to you such jealousy will not only poison the other person it will poison you and rob you of your peace where are they going who are they talking to where are they at such jealousy isn't showing how much you care it's revealing how you want to control and how little you can trust all right i'm gonna say it again i don't think you heard me that's not that's not that's not love that's not affection that's showing how much you want to control another person and how little you can trust ladies if you don't walk away from that as soon as it presents itself it will not get better marriage will not make it better preaching good men if she doesn't trust you now she won't trust you more later no matter how hard you try talking about jealousy today you're probably wishing i wasn't but we need to talk about this stuff it will poison our soul and poison our spirit and it'll lead leave us ineffective in the kingdom of god this type of jealousy that i just explained needs to be laid upon an altar and slain it needs to be killed if you don't kill that on an altar it will most surely kill you and any relationship that you may ever have you better kill that thing now some mom and dad need to say amen don't let your kids get in that type of relationship and don't model that type of relationship for them either because that's not healthy jealousy come from within the heart in romans 1 29 paul considered envy to be part of humanity's depravity in galatians 5 19-21 paul recorded envy as a product of the works of the flesh it was envy that caused strife in the corinthian church those who preached and advocated a false gospel promoted envy and other sinful behaviors that paul talked about and addressed in first timothy the apostle paul believed envy and jealousy were symptoms of the unredeemed life this is what jesus said in mark 7 21-27 he said from within out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy secret respectable sins i didn't kill nobody slander pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and they defile they defile the green eyed monster known as envy is a soul killer is silent it lies quietly in the heart it rages in the imagination and rarely proceeds from the mouth of his victim those around the victim may not even know that they're suffering from envy in his book called killjoys author joe rigney describes envy as this envy is a green eyed monster a ravenous wolf a beast with many heads envy is a gnawing worm the rust of the heart a malignant streak of a shriveled soul in the chews on a venomous toad drooling with poison in the lies in weight and springs like a serpent when its prey is within range goes on to say envy cries over other's wealth envy cheers when another stumbles in the weeps at those who rejoice and rejoices over those who weep it'll kill your soul solomon wrote this envy makes the bond the bones rot it will make your bones rot wise solomon added this wrath is cruel anger is overwhelming but who can stand against envy i'm going somewhere today i'm gonna dig deep while jealousy and envy come from within the sinful heart they are more more times than not passed down from one generation to another just as we have seen in the stories of isaac ishmael jacob esau rachel and leah and jacob sons and joseph your envy and your jealousy can be passed on to your kids by simply what you talk about jealousy and envy like to make their victims feel as if something is unfair now listen to me now listen to me it makes them feel as if something is unfair or perhaps they have been slided looked over and left out and if that doesn't work they become jealous when others become successful most of the time this silent and deadly killer attaches itself to someone's heart thinking through comparison they tip the scales of comparison towards those they are envious of using imaginary weights such as they have had it better than me or they are only in that position because of relationships or because they have more money or they conjure up some other uneven playing field such as they've only manipulated or deceptively maneuvered into that position or better yet they've taken unfair advantage because of their family ties or through nepotism that's jealousy and envy it will find a way through any of these avenues to poison you joseph had 12 jacob had 12 sons all together with leah rachel and their respective handmaidens but it was rachel's sons i had a special place in jacob's heart joseph was definitely jacob's favorite son he even had a special coat made for him to make matters worse joseph had a few dreams dreams of reigning over his family this only made his brother's jealousy rage even more then his brothers went to pasture their father's flock and sheck them jacob sent joseph to check on his brothers when they saw him from a distance and before he even came close to them they plotted against him to put him to death they said one to another here comes this dreamer must be nice now then come let us kill him and throw him into this pit and we'll say this um guess a beast devoured him or something then let us see what becomes of his dreams so it came about when joseph reaches brothers that they stripped joseph of his tunic this beautiful tunic that was on him they took it and threw him into a pit sat down and decided to have lunch what can we do with this brother of ours tell us brother are you going to reign over us now where's daddy now where's the uneven playing field now joseph then some midianite traitors passed by they pulled him up lifted joseph out of the pit sold him to the ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver thus they brought joseph into egypt now listen to me what began only as a hidden feeling of jealousy and envy grew into malice and hatred it got to the point of desiring to kill joseph all because they were jealous of their father's love for him and his dreams now you may think to yourself my envy isn't that bad and it won't get to that point i'm sure joseph's brothers believe the same thing there's a few small details we overlook in this this story first the sons of israel went to pastor their father's flock in shechem shechem was an evil place from which jacob had moved at god's urging in genesis 35. it was in shechem where their sister dinah was raped and all those brothers brutally killed the men of that city going back to shechem for pastor did not speak well of the brothers it revealed their evil affection and evil hearts love evil environments once you allow jealousy and envy to fester in your soul it will lead you to places and to associations that further infect your spirit second jealousy and envy loves company more times than not jealous people will find others who will agree with their feelings they are willing to link up with other people simply based on who they hate or who they're jealous of let me tell you something if those people you are associating with simply based over jealousy it won't be long before they turn their envious green eyes towards you especially when you have a change of mind and then they'll remember all the things that you said who do they think they are i know how they really are third you may not want to kill someone but your jealousy may drive you to attempt a character assassination here comes this dreamer you hear the sarcastic and cynical tone of the jealous brothers how about this here comes that spoiled brat or this here comes miss high and mighty here comes mr holier than thou here comes sister over privileged then it moves to a pit digging for their demise such as this passive aggressive social media posts i hope they see this i hope they know who i'm talking to i didn't tag them i don't have that kind of courage i'm not going to actually name them but everybody's going to know who i'm talking about and they're going to know about how i'm slighted and i'm overlooked that doesn't work about spreading rumors asking people leading questions like do you know how they got to be used there or what kind of special relationship do they have to get in that type of position or making statements like this if they only knew what i know about them you're not trying to murder them physically instead you're trying to bury them in the grave of your jealousy and envy while you think you're winning some war you're really losing it's not long where you get a terrible reputation of being a jealous and envious person and the only people you attract are drama queens and drama queens and kings and you only have fleeting relationships but nothing of substance because you can't be trusted not just this not just in the church it's on the job too this would be in the business too let me tell you something jealousy is a thief it is a thief it will steal your joy jealousy will kidnap your self-confidence jealousy will hijack your sleep jealousy will rob your relationships of trust jealousy will destroy your soul jealousy will cause you to tear others down gossip wish ill of someone feel inadequate lose trust never be content and create unneeded allies and enemies i wish somebody was hearing me today i'm trying to warn you about the poison that is jealous jealousy and in james 3 14-16 says this but if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth this wisdom descendeth not from above but it is earthly sensual devilish for where envying and strife is that's not the only thing you're harboring in your heart there's confusion and every evil work you open yourself up to false doctrine you open yourself up to demons you open yourself up to strife in your home you always somebody was hearing me right now jealousy is not going to be the only thing that you can hide in your heart before long hatred and malice what's the antidote any good poison any effect of poison has to have an antidote and there is an antidote for jealousy and envy first peter 2 1-3 he says this wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby if so be ye have tasted that the lord is gracious the word wherefore is important it means that it's connected to the previous thought found in the previous chapter and so within context peter is reminding believers to be sober minded not to turn to return to their thinking and behaviors of their previous unredeemed life they should be holy for god their god is holy and he has redeemed them as they just sang through the precious blood of the lamb look at first peter 1 22-23 seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently fervently being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of god which liveth and abideth forever now let's read the next part wherefore laying aside all malice all guile hypocrisies envies and evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby when you love one another with a pure heart you cannot harbor sins such as jealousy and envy there's no room for it there you can't have a pure heart without being born again faith in christ repentance water baptism in the name of jesus christ and being filled with the precious gift of the holy ghost is the beginning of this sanctifying process you have no room once he has cleansed you and his spirit dwells within you you have no more room for greed and jealousy and envy you should have affection for one another the first step is this laying aside all malice guile hypocrisies envying and evil speaking i'm almost done malice in some biblical context means evil or depravity but in this context of first peter it indicates an ill will towards others that destroys fellowship i've been to churches all around the world and if there are not unified and they're bickering and they're fighting and there's jealousy and envy you can't have revival there doesn't matter how many special sp preachers you bring in if they don't like one another while she does this and he does that and all this you'll never have revival that will kill a church in an instant when there's jealousy and envy and ill will towards somebody it rots christian communities guile can be translated as insincerity it indicates speaking or acting with ulterior motives was this not like joseph's brothers oh come on over here dreamer let's see that coat throw him into a pit hypocrisy is doing the opposite of what you say or do or you do that which you would want others to do you don't do that so you're a hypocrite evil speakings is such as gossip backbiting and other evil speech it doesn't stop with jealousy it will not stop envy will not dwell alone it always brings other vices into your heart he says put those things away lay them aside here's the antidote as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby we are to fight envy not with self-help books i like self-help books i like self-development books but you're not gonna fight and kill envy with a self-help book you're not gonna fight envy by going to the gym seven times a week i'm all for exercise you're not going to kill it there's only one way that you can kill envy and that's with the word of god baptize your mind with word baptize your spirit with the word of god peter said we're born again with this incorruptible seed of the word of god and it's the word of god that will help us fight these sins that lie dormant in our heart you've got to fight in the in jealousy with the word of god but you're going to have to desire the word of god more than you desire social media don't feed on envy don't feed on social media don't feed on what you think is happening down the road feed on the word of god feed your soul on who god says you are feast on the word of god who he's called you to be put that in your mind put that in your heart put that in your spirit long for it you need to long for the word of god more than you long for possessions more than you long for opportunities more than you long for blessings you need to long desire crave the word of god musicians come on almost done there's a lot of people glad i'm about done you know it's easy for us to talk about lust and adultery and all kinds of other hosts of sins and depravity in the world it's easy to over look sins like jealousy and envy and we as jerry bridges says in his book make them respectable sins no one knows about it because it's just in my heart it's just in my thoughts but it will come out it will come out and it'll hurt you and it hurts somebody else after you desire and long for the word of god you grow up somebody say grow up now don't you be poking your husband your wife saying grow up say that say that to yourself grow up grow up because it's it's desiring the sincere milk of the word of god as a newborn does well what do newborns do what do children do they get selfish they don't like to share they want to have mom and dad's attention all by themselves somebody else comes around i don't think so those are my toys this is my place these are my right and if we're not careful we'll do that as adults in the church is my church these are my pews this is my that come on grow up grow up you gotta grow up gotta mature you gotta mature children are jealous and envious and selfish but it shouldn't be among us who've been around for a while and who've had the holy ghost for decades we should be growing up saying we're not jealous i'm happy you're being blessed i'm happy they're they're being used of god i'm i'm excited about that i'm proud of them because god's doing something that's what a mature christian does they get to go to all those fancy restaurants drive them nice cars and you don't know how many hours they work during the week you don't know how much they give you don't know how much sleep they lose stop stand and stand stan must be nice have all that stuff and i have all those opportunities you listen i'm not the son of a preacher i'm not the grandson of a preacher i went to a church i told this to our adulter's class last last wednesday night i was evangelizing one time and i was full-time and i was by myself and someone asked me to come to church never been this church before and uh didn't know the pastor very well i just met him at an event he asked me to come for the weekend so i drove four hours one way from where i was staying and had to drive back uh four hours and i got there never been there before and i walked through the back doors kind of just kind of feeling my way out like where do i go what do i do and uh this young man meets me at the side side entrance he's standing on the platform he sees me he goes who are you i said well i'm i'm nate witless and i'm i'm i'm a special speaker today he goes who do you know that's what he said to me who do you know i was like i don't know who do you know i don't know you he's like who asked you to come here and i said well the pastor did is that okay he goes that's my dad because i've been around this whole district for 10 years preaching and nobody ever asked me to come preach i thought i know why i know why it's not he goes this is what he asked me this is what he asked me who's your daddy i said my dad's dead i said my dad died a drunk and smoked himself to cancer and death that's who my dad is so i'm not here because i'm a somebody i'm not here because i'm worthy of it and you can be mad and you can be upset but let me tell you something that jealousy and envy is going to kill a lot of opportunities for you i know i'm not that good of a preacher i'm just following the will of god and if you can't get behind that i'm so sorry i'm just going to keep on walking in my purpose you can be a hater you can be mad you can throw me in a pit but i'm gonna preach [Music] long for the word of god get that junk out of your spirit get that out of your life he said and so be that you have tasted at the word that the lord is gracious that you've tasted the psalmist said taste and see that the lord is good the issue is when we're not tasting and saying that the lord is good we've got the wrong appetite and we're craving the wrong things we're craving likes on on social media how many likes i got today how many followers they shouldn't have that many followers i should have more followers who they think they are getting that opportunity singing that solo preaching that conference blah blah blah blah blah got the wrong taste once you taste and see if the lord is good you realize that he's for you and not against you when you taste and see that the lord is good he's good to you and your brother when you taste and see that the lord is good he's good to everybody and if he's blessing them it might be my turn next so i want to keep on doing what i'm supposed to be doing lay aside greed and envy and jealousy and malice it's coming my way somebody say amen born again believers don't think that they've been slighted or looked over they see themselves as sinners saved by grace and they see their brothers and sisters have experienced the same miracle of salvation long for the word of god then you'll grow up a little bit grow up into salvation mature in your spirit mature in your heart knowing that if god's blessing them he's going to bless you too if god can use them if he can use somebody like me he can definitely use somebody like you we got the same god the same heavenly father grow up don't be envious of me don't be envious of your sister if he if he's doing it for them i rest assured he's going to do it for you won't you lift up your hands today father we're going to kill that spirit we're going to kill that's that sin we're going to kill that soul-killing spirit of jealousy and envy today i wonder there'd be somebody you're not admitting to anything everybody everybody in this room deals with this but i wonder if somebody can say you know what i need some relief today i need some relief today i need a taste and see that the lord is good i need to give my cravings back on the word of god is there somebody come on he can help you today he can bring you peace and your spirit and peace in your soul come on he can bring you something today that he's bringing for somebody else you just gotta position yourself and be ready for it but he can't come and help you if you're harboring those feelings he can't help you if you're holding that grudge he can't help you if you're holding that envy in your heart be set free today [Music] of god [Music] [Music] oh [Music] take my wings [Music] is [Music] to your you lift up your hands right now father in the name of jesus i pray that you would have the illuminating spirit open up the hearts of your people even mind god and reveal that green-eyed monster of envy and jealousy it's easy god when i'm scrolling through social media to see what others have and think why not me but i pray god as soon as that thought comes to my mind that the word of god will become a sword and help me kill that spirit god i pray right now that you would begin to reveal that in our hearts that we might lay it upon the altar god don't let us be jealous and envious that we're that way we keep strife and and the rod of just of division out of our lives but god we want to be unified today in your spirit and in your word in jesus name in jesus name would you clap your hands under the lord today hallelujah hallelujah