Envy

Happy Sunday! Today we've made it to the fifth of the seven deadly sins: Envy. Defined, Envy is the desire to have what another person has. It's not simply wanting to have the same kind of thing the other person has; you want what is theirs.

Let's begin with a Biblical example. The story is found in the book of First Kings, chapter 21. As The Story begins, we meet a king named Ahab, and his wife's name was Jezebel. They ruled Samaria, and they were Wicked. They lived in a beautiful palace and had all that they wanted, almost.

You see, they had a neighbor named naboth, and he owned a Vineyard located right next door to the Palace of King Ahab. The king wanted that piece of land, so one day King Ahab went to see nabeth to make him an offer on his Vineyard that the king thought he couldn't refuse. naboth refused. There was a big problem: nabeth couldn't sell the land. It was the land of his ancestors, and according to Leviticus and numbers, he could never sell that land.

The King was angry, and he was entitled, and that's a very dangerous combination. The king went home Angry, and scripture says that he went home, he refused to eat, and he went to bed. His wife, Queen Jezebel, knew something was wrong, and she asked him why he was so upset. He told her the story.

Jezebel reminded Ahab that he was the king. She also told him, don't worry, she'd take care of it. So she hatched a plan. She wrote letters in the king's name inviting many to come to the palace for a meeting. nabath received an invitation, so he came.

Jezebel hired two false Witnesses, false witnesses, to sit in your neighbor and report that he had cursed God and the King. Although nabath did no such thing, he was dragged out of the palace and stoned to death. Jezebel gave his land to her husband as a present. Envy led to big problems here. Ahab nor Jezebel had they, they both had no concern for the life of naboth.

James 3:16 tells us, "For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind." Envy is a gateway to all sorts of wickedness. It does not care about other people. It does not care about consequences.

Perhaps you remember the name Wanda Holloway. She is known as the Pom-Pom Mom. It's been over 30 years ago; it was 1991. She hired a Hitman to kill the mother of a 14 year old cheerleader in Channelview, Texas. Why would she do that?

Wanda wanted her daughter to be a cheerleader, and she figured if she had one of the girls on the squad's mother killed, that the girl would drop out because of grief, and her daughter would be in. Her daughter was the last one cut from the squad. Envy just doesn't care. Remember the story from 1994, when Tonya Harding hired Jeff gillooly to break Nancy Kerrigan's knee so that Tanya could be the darling of the ice skating world?

Envy makes people do crazy things. I read recently that hundreds of people are killed each year, maybe over a thousand, for their tennis shoes. Carjackings are rampant because of envy. Proverbs 14:30 tells us, "A sound heart is life to the body, but Envy as rottenness to the bones."

I read this quote about Envy. I don't know who it's from, but they said, if you think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you're probably not taking care of the grass on your own side. To fight Envy, we must learn to be content. We also must learn to be happy for others, and the only way that this will happen is because we love others.

Remember these words From First Corinthians 13:4: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy." If I love others the way that God tells me to, I'll never Envy.

I heard the story of a man who was in a good marriage with a good job, but he lived in a good house in a good neighborhood, and his kids were in a good school with good friends. He went to his 20-year high school reunion, and there he felt that others there had better jobs than he did, and bigger salaries, and prettier wives, and kids in private schools. And he went home feeling inferior and dissatisfied with his life. Absolutely nothing had changed except his attitude. The sin of Envy clouded his thinking.

People do this all the time. They get on Facebook and see others on exotic vacations, driving fancy cars, living in mansions, and all of a sudden they think that their lives are no good. The Apostle Paul gave these words to Young Timothy in the book of First Timothy, chapter 6. He said this: "True godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into this world, and we take can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunged them into ruin and destruction."

That is true today. I pray that you are content today. I pray that you love the way you should. Why don't you thank God today for all your blessings and put Envy aside?

Pray with me. Lord, this world needs love, the love that only comes through Christ Jesus. This world needs contentment, the only kind of contentment that can come through a right relationship with you. God, healed this broken world, and if we have any wrestling going on with Envy, heal us. Thank you for the gift of today. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

God bless you. Thanks for joining me today.