The Struggle with Envy and Trusting God's Promises

In our small group Sunday school classes, we've been looking at the doctrine of sin in the Bible. It ought to be a portion of the scripture that all of us are well experienced in, so it shouldn't be a surprise to you to look at it. The doctrine of sin, rebellion against God, is a very critical part of the story of the scriptures because it teaches us about the dangers that come to us because of our failure to be submissive and obedient to God. Today we're going to look at what the Bible has to say about one sin that probably on your scale of importance or significance is pretty low, envy. The sin in the Bible starts in the very beginning as a failure to accept the authority of God over our lives. God made the world, he made a plan by which it ought to live, and his intention was that every human being born into the world would just surrender themselves to the authority of God, would say to God, I plan to live my life in obedience to you. Now we grew up in a world where most of the people don't live this way. People live around us saying I want to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, the way I want to do it, and I don't want anyone telling me what to do. This idea of our own self-control and the importance of ourselves and our own will and our own wishes is a powerful force in all humanity. What God asks of us is to recognize his supreme authority and say to him, I am prepared to allow you to take control of my life. Now when we do this, it's a difficult journey that we start on, because it's not one that's finished the moment you first say I give my life to you, God. You start out as a child, you grow up and you live in an environment where your parents tell you what to do. I don't know very many people that love that. Growing up, I didn't want my mom to tell me when to come home or what I could do or what I could eat or when I could eat. I wanted to do exactly what I wanted to do. But there came a time for me when I said to God, I realize that you want me to give my life to you, and so I give my life to you. I didn't understand all that that meant when I did it, but I knew that God wanted me to accept what he said in the scripture was his will for me and the behavior of my lifestyle. What happens to children when they make this kind of promise to God is they begin to grow, they have additional responsibilities that come to them. For example, you start out and you realize it is God's will for me to obey my parents. Now all the other kids around may lie to their parents and they may tell their parents they did something when they didn't, and they may not keep the rules their parents give them when they're not in their parents' eyesight, but God says I want you to obey your parents all the time. So you have this struggle. Am I going to be like all my friends who are doing these things, or am I going to stand out, look odd, and say, okay, my folks told me I can't do this, so I'm not going to do it, to say that to my friends. At the very beginning, you're learning submission to the authority of God is sometimes difficult and costly, and then when you start earning money, you learn God wants me to give ten percent of this to him, and it seems hard because it's not very much money, and you look around at your friends and they get to spend all their money, and you are supposed to give some of it to God. So you look at that and you say, how is it that I'm required to live under these different kind of rules than others, and I can't have all the things that they have? And then when you start dating, you read in the Bible where it says that you're not to be unequally yoked together, it means that two people who get married ought to have the same person controlling their lives, and that's God. Because if God controls one and the devil controls the other, it's going to have trouble all the time making choices, so you try to make your choices about the girl or guy that you're going to date. Is this person really a follower of Christ, so that I can keep what he tells me is the right thing? You look around you and the other people are having different experiences, they can do whatever they want to do, and all you are doing these things here in this narrow way. Learning how to surrender to the authority and will of God. Now when you get a job and you finally start earning some money and you start in your career, you have a different set of rules governing you than other people around you. They can lie, they can steal from the company, they can cheat the customers, or they can cheat their boss, but you have this narrow little road that you have to walk on. I must tell the truth, I must work hard all the hours instead of goofing off, even if the boss is not looking, that's what the Bible says I should do. So you have a different set of rules. And our human nature says, if I live by these things God tells me, then I should have more than everyone else, because I have these rules I live by. But that's not always the way it works. Sometimes the guys and women that are not very honest get promoted ahead of you. Sometimes they are more popular with the crowd than you are. Sometimes you see instead that other people are gaining money, position, power, influence, when you are not. And what has inside of our human nature, we start looking at other people and saying, why is it that I have to live under these rules, and I don't get as much popularity, promotions, or money as the people who are living outside of these rules? That's where envy comes in. Envy is a part of our human nature that causes us to look at those around us and think, I wish I had what they have. It can be when you are younger, friends that like you, or you are not a part of the popular group, or you get to play on the team and the coach is favorable to you, or you find that the other people in your class really think you are great and you are one of the leaders of the class. It can come in every kind of way. And it seems to us as if it is sort of an unimportant issue. But Jesus, when he was talking in Matthew chapter 7, helped us to see in a different way how important God sees the issue of envy as a rebellion against him and his authority. In chapter 7 of the book of Matthew, if that's right, let me pause my place a moment. Not everyone who says to me, Matthew chapter 7 verse 21, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons and perform miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away with me, you evildoers. Jesus was describing the reality that not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, actually has surrendered inside of themselves to the authority of God. They have made the words in their mouth true, but the submission of their heart has not really occurred. And so whenever you make a promise to God, I'm going to let you rule my whole life. And then you begin to question whether or not God has really fulfilled his promise. You've begun to doubt whether or not God is really trustworthy. Paul in writing was describing the importance of the issue that we're faced with. The idea that God holds us accountable for every part of what he asks us to do. So that in Galatians chapter 5, Paul is describing for us what the sinful nature is really like. He's describing the difference between people who are controlled by God and those who are controlled by Satan or their own human nature. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions and factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you now, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. And when we read that long list of things, we think, well, you know, I can see murder, lying, all these other immoralities that are there, but what is so terribly wrong with envy? Envy is looking at what's happening in your life, comparing it to the promises of God, and believing that God has not kept his promise with you. Whenever you're committed your life to Christ and you begin living the way he wants, and you try every way that you can to succeed in obeying him, and you look at the promises he made, I will guide you in your choices, I will provide your needs, I will protect you, and I will make your life a great influence. You expect from God that those things will actually come to pass. You trust that he will provide that for you. And then when you begin to look around making these choices as you're growing through this life of obedience, you discover that there are a lot of people who are not doing those things who seem to have a lot more closeness to the promises of God than you. They may be more popular, they may have more money, they may get more promotions, all kinds of ways by which you look at them and say, it looks like they're making better choices than I am. It looks like that they are provided for better than I am. It looks like that in their life, they're protected better than I am. And it looks like everyone looks at them and says, these are great people. God, why are you not keeping your promises to me? You see, when we look at that, we begin to doubt and mistrust the promises of God. The beginning of our spiritual life is when we say to God, I trust you with everything in my life. Then when those things don't seem to be working as we would like them to work, or as we see around us they're working, we begin to question whether or not God really keeps his promise. Remember, the failure to accept the authority of God is what keeps you from the kingdom of God. And so when you look at other people and you say, they don't go to church, they don't read the Bible, they don't try to live by these things, but they seem to have prosperity and success, you're raising doubts in your mind about the authenticity of God's promise. Does he really keep his promise? And that doubt is what keeps you from being able to have trust and faith in God. So what Jesus was talking about when he says, here are the things that keep you from the kingdom of God, and what Paul was talking about when he says, these are the things that keep you from the kingdom of God, envy is included in the list both in Jesus' instructions and in Paul's. You cannot doubt the words of God and the promise of God and still claim his authority over your life. You see, following God is a matter of trust and faith. In the beginning you may say, okay God, I want to trust you, and I do. And in that moment you receive the presence of the Holy Spirit and the joy of God's presence in your life, but as you begin to live and face all these choices you have to make, it seems like other people who are not living within this narrow way of God's instructions seem to do better than you. This is the great temptation that we have living for God. Here's a clue as to how God works. He gives us promises, but he expects us to do this, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me and you will find life in its fullness. All my promises will come true. So he expects in the beginning of our Christian life for us to deny our own wishes and desires. He expects us to live in obedience to him even though sometimes it seems costly. And then as a result of that we will find our life shaped by God. Satan never asked those things. He says from the very beginning, do whatever you want, enjoy yourself and you'll have a wonderful life. If you take his plan in the beginning, everything in your life will seem far greater than the people around you because he gives everything he can to you whenever you start this life of self-fulfillment. If you start with Christ, he asks you to deny your own desires and wishes. He asks you to be faithful and obedient to him even though it sometimes puts you back away from the things that you would like to accomplish, trusting him that somewhere down the road the fulfillment will come. Satan says enjoy yourself now and if you wait 20-30 years down the road, the people who do that end up in disaster. And certainly when they die, they end up in hell. But if you deny yourself and take up your cross and live by the instructions of God, you not only find 20 years down the road, you look back and say God has kept every promise that he said he would keep. And then when you die, he says welcome home. Envy you see, looks at the people who are living this self-controlled life and the promises that Satan gives to them of fun, enjoyment, and pleasure and causes us to look at the life of sacrifice that God asks for us and to desire their life and to be complaining and upset with God because he does not give us what those who follow the hand and direction of Satan or our self-fulfillment really find. So the Christian life is a life of faith. Faith based on one single thing. God has said if you will trust your life to me, I make this promise to you, I will help you make the right choices. Now when you make them, they will not always be as prosperous as other people's choices, not always as much fun as other people's choices, but they will be good for you all of your life and all of eternity. I will provide for you, it won't always be as much as your neighbors might have when they steal and lie and cheat, but I will provide for you enough that you need and when all of your life is over, you'll look back and say, God gave me everything that I needed. And I will protect you. It doesn't mean that you won't ever have trials or difficulties, but there will be nothing that comes in your life that I won't give you the inner strength and the wisdom to make the right choices so that you get through that and not are destroyed, but instead are stronger and more confident in the presence and power of God. You look at your friends who go through the same disasters and they're overwhelmed and destroyed and their lives are crumbling because of it. But all of that time you may look at others and you say, God, why is my life not like theirs? Why do they get promoted? Why are they popular? Why does everyone seem to like them? And then you see, as time goes on, the hand of Satan destroying a life. There was a time when, if you ask anyone in the world about Lance Armstrong, they would say, well, he's one of the best athletes in the whole world. Everyone liked him. Millions and millions of dollars he made. And the people who rode the bikes with him, looked at him, knew what he was doing. They could have said, if they were followers of God, why does he get all this success? And I don't get that. Now, years later, they can look at themselves and say, thank you, God, for guiding me that the disaster that's come to him did not come to me. Being obedient to God brings eternal life, beginning in this world. But it doesn't always mean that your life is going to be significantly better than everyone who refuses to follow Christ. It just means that all of your life, it will be better and forever it will. The Bible always gives us a remedy for this kind of thing that happens. And you know, that's not necessarily just for people in the world. Paul in writing to the church was writing to a church where there was conflict and where there was jealousy and where there was envy. What they had in the church, in the Corinthian church, was people who were filled with the Spirit of God. And they were given gifts to God to be able to do the work of God. But when they looked around, there were people who said, you know, the guy that preaches is really such a powerful man of God. And the people who were doing prayer ministries looked around and said, but we're important too. If we didn't pray for him, he wouldn't have all this success in proclaiming the Word of God. There were others around who said, you know, God's blessed us and we're giving generously to this church. If we didn't have the money that I'm giving, there wouldn't be any preacher here. And so they were quarreling among themselves about who was the most significant of all the people. Paul writing to that church in 1 Corinthians was trying to give them an antidote to the quarrels that had taken place. He was suggesting to them that there was a remedy for the envy that they had for each other. He said, now I will show you a more excellent way. Instead of each of you trying to figure out who's the most important person in the church and envying those who seem to have a greater position than yourself, there is something far greater. If I speak in the tongue of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all possessions to the poor and surrender my body to flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Now listen to what he is saying. If you can speak like an angel and you don't have this quality of love, you are really insignificant in the church. If you know the mind of God and you can preach great mysteries and explain the Bible and you don't have faith, and you have faith that can actually move mountains, but you don't have love, it doesn't count as far as God is concerned. If I even give my body to be burned as a martyr, and you do it for the fame instead of obedience to God, it counts for nothing. For love is the critical ingredient in the Christian life. It doesn't mean that you like people when the Bible says you should love each other. It doesn't say you should be best friends with everybody when it says you should love each other. What it means is that you are to give yourself in service to the people around you. Self-denying, sacrificial service to other people. So if you see somebody in the church, Paul is saying, who has a ministry of preaching and everyone is talking about how great he is and you feel welling up inside of you, but I am doing a very important job too, why doesn't anybody recognize me? You should stop that immediately and say, how can I help the person who is doing the preaching? How can I help the person who is doing the teaching? How can I help the person who is managing the church facilities? So if you look instead of the place of position and want that for yourself, desire the role of service. So you say, how can I help those people who are doing a good job? What can I do to make their life better or easier? How can I help them accomplish what they have? So instead of desiring the place of importance and significance, have a passion for the place of service and obedience. Churches, just like all other places, have people in them and they quarrel and fight. And their quarrel and fighting is always about who gets control, who gets to determine where the money goes, who gets to determine what is done in the church. And so you have fights over who is able to get control of the process and make sure that their will is accomplished. And there are churches that fight over all kinds of things. They fight over how the building looks, they fight over how the money is spent, they fight over all kinds of things that go on. Every kind of decision is made, except I've never heard of a church, never, where there was a fight over who got to clean the toilets. No one wants that job, you see. It's not a job of power or significance. It is a job of helpfulness. No one fights over who gets to serve. We always fight over who gets to win. And when we fight over who gets to win, we're saying to God, I don't want you to tell me what to do, I want to be able to tell others what to do. Not the life of service or submission or obedience, but the life of control and authority. Love is not like that. Love simply says, I want to help you and I'm willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to help you. So that the person who lives by love, if they're a preacher in the church or if they're a person who does miracles in the church or if a person, whatever their role is, if they're always saying how can I do things that help all the other people here accomplish their task, then you know that love is at work. It never exalts itself, it exalts others. It never takes a position of control, but it always helps others. I heard a coach talk the other day about his team and he was talking about a player that had been injured, a basketball team. And he said about this player, he's really a great player, he said of course it's great to have him back because he plays so well and he always scores a lot, but that's not the most important thing. When he's on our team, he makes everybody else on the team better. That's what the role of love really is. It's not that you control life, but that everyone around you becomes better because of you being in their community or in their church. Envy says, I want to be better. I want to control. I want to have the position of authority. I want myself to be important. Love says, how can I help you be important? So whenever you have envy, strike you, and all of us have it. Sometime or other we look around and find other people who get recognition or place of significance that appears to us that we ought to have at least that or more. Whenever you have that, strike you. Remember that Satan is tempting you to say, don't trust God to guide you. You must get out there and make a place for yourself. You stop and say, God, I trust you to guide me so that my life will achieve what you want for it. I ask you to show me how I can help the people around me be able to do their job better. The envy will decrease and the love that you give to others will make them better at what they do and fill you with the very presence of God. Submission to the authority of God results in love because he demands that we put the interests of others ahead of ourselves. Envy is a passionate desire on our part to put ourselves above other people around us, to get control that other people might have, to be able to control circumstances, events, and people that only God has the power to do. You can see why it's such a deadly sin. It wants to take over the authority and power of God. It wants to deny that in my circumstances God has not fulfilled what I expected of him, so I must do it myself. What God asks us to do is what he does, to say, I don't ask you to do anything except what I did when I walked on the face of the earth. And Jesus said, I only do what the Father tells me to do. I only say what the Father tells me to say. I do every single thing he asked me. And when his disciples had a need, he met it, even if it meant kneeling in front of them and washing their feet. The example God gives us is not for arrogance and pride or control, but a life of servanthood following the example of Jesus who came to serve. Our human nature does not accept that role well. It doesn't satisfy us to find a role of servanthood unless the Spirit of God controls our minds, our will, and our emotions. Would you bow your heads for a moment of reflection? Think about the time in your life in which you have felt that you've kept all the rules you think are right and good, but other people get ahead by not keeping them. I want you to think about times that you tried to be faithful in obeying God, but in those moments it didn't always turn out the way you'd hoped. Those are times that you're very tempted to envy God. Why don't you do for me what other people seem to have done for them? Why don't you give me what other people have? God, why is it that I make the right choices, but things don't seem to turn out right all the time? What he says to us is, remember, I promise to keep my promise. Do you trust me, or are you trusting your own judgment? The way of life is to say to God, I trust you with everything. Have you ever made a promise to God that you would allow him to direct your mind? Have you ever made a promise to God that you would live according to his instructions in the Bible? Have you ever made a promise to God that you would live not the way you want, but the way he tells you you should? When you do that, God receives you into his kingdom, and then you begin to live in obedience to him, and in that you will find the life he intended you to have. If you've never made that promise to God, today would be the best opportunity for you to do it. God, take my life and teach me how to live. If you have trouble with envy in your life, whenever you find a circumstance or people who are in a place or position you think should be yours or have what should be yours, instead of getting upset about it, ask God, what can I do to be a servant to that person? And you will find release from the grip of envy, and a life filled with God's love. In the moment of quietness, I'm going to ask our pianist to play. If in the process of these moments you've heard God say to you, there are changes that need to be made in your life, and you know it's true, and you want to find out the next step that you need to take to make that happen, we're going to give you an opportunity to respond. I'll be at the front here, there'll be others here if you want to come and share with us the promise you want to make to God or to ask the next step you need to take. Listen to Him, and do what He tells you, and you will find life.