[Gary Petty] In this series of sermons that I've been giving on 1 Corinthians 13, we've been going through the qualities of agape as described by Paul and John and other writers of the New Testament as they gave a distinct Christian definition to agape. And in this definition, they used agape, this form of love, to describe the very essence of the nature of God. So when we looked at 1 Corinthians 15, started looking at it, or 1 Corinthians 13, started looking at 1 Corinthians 13... If you're looking at 1 Corinthians 15, you're looking at the resurrection chapter. But if you're looking at 1 Corinthians 13, you're looking at agape.

And in that definition, he says, "This is what we must be becoming." He even says that we can have all the knowledge, we can have all the doctrines right. And if this isn't becoming who we are, then we're missing the point. The point of right doctrine is to teach us, as it also says in 1 Corinthians, to have the mind of Christ. The Holy Spirit is given to us so that we can become the children of God, not just as some nice little thing, "Oh, you're a child of God," but literally the children of God.

And in that experience, as we become the children of God, the mind of Christ is developed in us. And that's what Paul's talking about there in 1 Corinthians 13, that these qualities of the very essence of the nature of God has to become part of who we are. And when you read through this, we begin to understand what it really means. We realize, "Wow." We can do the things that we need to do, we have to do, like we don't keep Christmas, we don't keep Easter. But, you know, you cannot keep Christmas and Easter and not have agape. We can have the knowledge. You have to have it. But if we don't develop beyond that, then we have an outward religion. What 1 Corinthians 13 really shows us is we have to have an inward religion. That internally, we're being changed, not just externally, but internally, we're being changed.

Now, the doctrines are part of that. You know, I was thinking about Mr. Walker when he was talking here this afternoon. That teaching that we don't have an immortal soul is profound. I've been a little bit here and now, or here for the last probably six months. Just little bits and pieces. I don't have the time. But I'm doing the most in-depth study I've ever done on the immortal soul in a level I've never done before, and I've studied this subject quite a bit. And in doing so, I realized how much it does change who I am in here. Actually knowing what that actually means changes the way I view life. It changes the way I live.

But I can have that knowledge. If it doesn't change who I am, then according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, that knowledge is basically worthless. Well, wait a minute, we have to have the knowledge. That's not his argument. His argument is if we don't use that, if that's not...the knowledge God gives us doesn't develop in us through the power of His Spirit, something else, this very character of God, he said then the knowledge becomes meaningless. It's just head knowledge. It's not a change of our very nature. So far, we've looked at two of those qualities. We've given three sermons so far. We talked about longsuffering and kindness and showed how longsuffering and kindness is part of the very core nature of God, and it has to become part of the essential nature of who we are too.

The next thing on that list, in 1 Corinthians 13, is that agape, this love of God, envies not, does not envy. Now, I started thinking about, how often have I given a sermon on envy? Because it's like, "Well, most people know they shouldn't envy." The last time I gave a sermon on envy was over 10 years ago. Now, I've mentioned envy, you know, and be talking about something in a Scripture that mentions envy and saying why we shouldn't have that or describe it a little bit, but an entire sermon on envy, I haven't done in over a decade.

Well, how important is this? Then you go back and you start really thinking about it and you realize how important this is. If we are truly becoming the children of God, we must keep the Sabbath, but we also must not envy. Because if we're going to have the character of God, this essence of the nature of God, and it's going to become our nature, we must not envy. So what does that mean? How do we play that out? It was interesting, I had some questions from my people in Murfreesboro this morning. Is this envy? Is this envy? They never thought about things before. Is this envy? Is this envy? What event here that's going on in my life and how I'm reacting to it, is it envious or not? And they were good questions.

So we have to know what it means. Basically, envy, whether you look at the Greek word, because we're going to be looking a lot at the New Testament today, but the Hebrew word's basically the same as the English word as far as its meaning. It's a feeling. It's a feeling of discontent and ill will because of someone else's wealth or possessions or advantages or status or whatever it is. Because somebody else has something, you feel discontented, and you feel ill will towards that person. And that way envy, is different than coveting. They're similar.

Now, how important is coveting? Well, one of the 10 commandments is “Thou shalt not covet”, right? So this is an important subject because these things are related. So when we talk about envy here, we're actually talking about something related to one of the 10 commandments. Coveting is when you see something and you want it so badly that it becomes an obsession. You almost have an emotional attachment to a new car. And I want a new car. Now, wanting a new car isn't wrong. Doing all your homework to buy a new car is not wrong. But when a person becomes obsessed with that new thing or whatever they want, it's all they can think about, and they get to the place where, what do I have to do to get that? You know what? If I just take the next month and I work on the Sabbath, I can make enough money to make the down payment on the car. You know what? If I just sort of not tell the truth of the next business deal I'm making, I might make enough money to buy a new car.

What happens with coveting is the obsession drives us to start thinking in immoral ways and eventually actually immoral actions. It shifts our attention on the physical things where those physical things become the most important things in our life. Envy, though, takes that a step farther. It's when your neighbor drives in to their driveway and you look over and they have a new car, and you say, "Wow, I wish I had that car. They don't deserve that car. I work a lot harder than that guy. I know that guy. He's lazy. I wish I had his car. I deserve his car."

The line between coveting and envy is that coveting is just sort of general. I want something either I shouldn't have or I don't have the money for, but I just obsess with it. I want it and I want it until I lose all balance and I become just obsessed with it. Envy is personal. That person doesn't deserve what they have. I deserve what they have. Therefore, I dislike that person, or I despise that person, or I'm going to get that person. It actually can turn into actions. Envy is covetousness on steroids because it becomes personal.

So this is tied in to one of the 10 commandments. You'd be surprised. Just look up the word envy in a concordance and see how many times envy shows up in the Bible. And it shows up over and over again in the New Testament where there's lists of sins. You know, murder, adultery, envy? Why are you putting envy up there? I mean, I can envy somebody and no one else knows. Well, God does. But plus, envy will drive actions. And envy can destroy us spiritually. Envy is a very dangerous spiritual state. So it is important that we go through envy.

In fact, as I went through this sermon and I thought, "Yeah, I haven't given a sermon on envy for over 10 years." I should have because, you know, I need to be remembered, the dangers of envy. Because envy isn't something we think about because, you know, most people aren't so envious of their neighbor that they're going over and shooting their neighbor's dog because they're... “You don't deserve the house you got, so I'm going to do something bad to you.” I mean, you find that there are people that do things like that.

But envy is designed into the system that you and I live in. I know. I used to write advertising. You have to get people motivated to do something, right? You motivate them to do something. And one of the things you do is you make them want something that somebody else has. I probably told you this before. Remember what jellies are? If I told you the story about jellies, remember jellies, the little rubber shoes that was big in the '80s? Oh, some of you aren't old enough to remember those. Some of you do, okay.

Okay, jellies. I worked at a radio station, and jellies were just huge, especially among teenagers. Well, I'm going to tell you now anyways, I started it. Jellies were just huge. All the girls, teenage girls, wanted jellies. And they were $3.99 or maybe it was $2.99 a pair. They were cheap. And they were all bright colors. And they ran out of jellies in the entire town, except one store. I don't know if he was the jelly mafia or what. He got jellies, a full shipment of jellies. He called me and I said, "Okay, let's get this campaign on the air right now."

So I wrote up the radio commercials. We had different stations. So we did in English and then Spanish and we blasted out the jellies were now on sale. The only place you can get them, you can't get them anyplace else. And they're only 5.99 a pair. And time went on and nobody else got them. Then he got special colors. So pretty soon, we're saying so and so has jellies at 7.99 a pair and they have the purple ones. Carloads of kids are coming in, running in to get their jellies. We got every teenage girl in a 40-mile radius, which was...the 40-mile radius was where we dominated in our radio station. Were coming in all over to get their jellies. And we did it and we did it and we did it. I think we reached 14.99 a pair. And then everybody else got their shipments. And we were back down to 3.99 a pair.

And I look back and I think, "We created..." I mean, I understood it was just economics, but now I look back and think, "How wrong was that?" We created an artificial feeling among teenage girls. They needed this because everybody else had one. Oh, you don't have one. Well, sorry, she's special, she does. So they rushed in until we had jacked that price up until everybody else got them. Boop, went right back down. And pretty soon, every store was having sales on jellies, $1.99 a pair because they couldn't sell them. We did. I had other clients mad at me, "But I don't have any jellies." "Sorry, can't help you." "But this campaign you're doing with them is working so good." "Yeah, because they have jellies." So I understand. Envy is the motivation of the society you and I live in. So we don't know it. We don't know it. So we can be envious and not even realize it. It's interesting.

Proverbs 14:30 Solomon wrote, “Envy is rottenness to the bones.”

It literally will destroy your health. It is an obsession that will drive you to expend your energy because somebody else has something I want. I can guarantee you all the little girls going to school, or it wasn't just little girls, teenagers, every 16-year-old girl going to school who had jellies on was wearing them and was showing them off. And all the other girls wanted jellies. Hey, and I'm telling them on the radio where they can go get them for $14.99 a pair. Create envy.

Let's look at an example of envy, 1 Samuel. I'm glad I got out of advertising. I liked it and most of it was just helping businesses. But every once in a while, you get into something like that and later think, "Was that even ethical?" Capitalism says it is, but is it biblically ethical? And I was starting to really wrestle with, "Well, you know, there's less and less things I'm comfortable doing," because we're always manipulating people to do something so somebody can make money. What we have here is a situation where David kills Goliath. So Saul brings him in to his palace or the administration of his government and puts him over at least part of the army, possibly the whole army at this point.

1 Samuel 18:5-6 “So David went out wherever Saul sent him and behaved wisely. And Saul sent him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. Now, what happened is they were coming home when David was returning from slaughtering the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines and with joy and with musical instruments.”

And I want you to understand, they're coming out to greet the king, okay? Saul has it all. He's the king. He has wealth. He has the adoration of the people. You know, I mean, let's face it. They said, "We want a king." God told Samuel, "Pick that man." I mean, when you walk around saying, "God picked me." Right? God picked him. He had everything.

1 Samuel 18:7 “So the women sang as they danced and said, ‘Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.’”

Well, nobody had slain thousands of men. But the point they're making is, you know, Saul's a great man, but this David, he's the best warrior in the country. He killed Goliath.

1 Samuel 18:8-9 “Then Saul was very angry and the saying displeased him. And he said, ‘They have ascribed to David 10,000. And to me, they have assigned only thousands. Now, what more can he have but the kingdom?’ So Saul eyed David from that day forward.”

Saul, who had everything, and David, who just a few days before had been a shepherd, a young guy, a very young man, he is envious of David because David is getting all this attention and I'm not. David's famous. Well, he was too. He was the first king. But because of his insecurity, he just couldn't accept who he was in the eyes of God. Saul now turned against David. His envy becomes an obsession. In fact, if you read just the next few verses, he becomes so envious he tries to kill him. I don't mean like he sends out soldiers to kill him. He takes a spear and tries to kill him twice. And David has to run away. Before it's over with, this envy has driven him to the point that it says God's spirit left him. There's demonic spirits bothering him, and as he slides into insanity, he goes and visits a witch and tries to talk to the dead. He ends up fighting a battle he's not supposed to fight, the army gets defeated, and he commits suicide.

And this envy was just one of a number of things, but this envy ate away at him like a spiritual cancer, an emotional mental cancer. And we live in a world that's designed to sell things partly by causing us to be envious. How many commercials do you see on television? I don't care whether it's a leaf blower, a new car, some kind of new clothing, and the person comes home and their neighbor looks at them and they're looking at them. Why are they doing that? Because you're supposed to be the neighbor. In your mind, you're the neighbor. In this story, you're the neighbor, and you're saying, "Oh, wow, I wish I had that." It's all designed that way. Put somebody in a story, and they'll start living it. And the vicarious living of it is a very powerful thing. I mean, Saul let envy destroy who he was. That man has something I want and I deserve, and I'm going to get it from him, even if I have to kill him. Even if I have to kill him, I'll get it from him.

Let's look at three things that we must prayerfully do to combat envy. And I say prayerfully, you and I have to pray about this. We look at these things as like envy, you know? Yeah, today or this week when I was thinking about the sermon to give and I thought, "Well, I've been covering this, 1 Corinthians 13, maybe I should take a break." Every once in a while, you want to take a break. Maybe I'll do something prophetic. And then I started thinking about it, what more important thing right now can we do than go through 1 Corinthians 13?

But it's like, "Well, that's not important." Having the very essence of the nature of God defined for us so that we can become that, name one thing that's more important than that. "Well, prophecy." Paul said, "No. In relationship to this, prophecy is nothing." "Okay, knowledge." "In relationship, that's nothing." So Paul defined this is our ultimate goal. Now, there's a lot of other things along the way, and I'm not putting that down. I'm saying this is the ultimate goal. So the first thing, you and I have to stop this human propensity to compare ourselves with others so that we're obsessed that they have something that I should have. It's an obsession. Look what that person has. Look what that person has. And we become obsessed with it.

Interesting enough, there's a person in the Bible who almost was destroyed until he realized his problem was envy. Let's go to Psalm 73. This is Asaph. This is to me one of the most fascinating poems of... Well, it is a poem, Psalms of Asaph, Psalm 73. And we'll just skip around a little bit here to get the full message that he's giving.

Psalm 73:1 "Truly God is good to Israel to such as are pure in heart."

He said, "Well, God's good to Israel." And then he had to say, "Well, he's good to those who are pure in heart in Israel." Now, why does he make that switch? You know, this sort of general statement and then a specific statement. Well, let's look what he says next.

Psalm 73:2 “But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped.”

He says, "I almost just fell over into sin. I almost ended up in a really, really bad place." And what was it?

Psalm 73:3 "For I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

He says, "I looked at what other people had and I just envied them. Why, God, do they have those things and I don't? I follow you. I obey you. I tithe. How come I tithe and, you know, I'm having trouble paying my electric bill this month, and those people don't tithe, and, you know, they're out just spending money hand over foot because they have all the money they want? How come? How come? Don't you bless us?" You'll see that often in the Bible in reference to people going to Sheol when they die in the Old Testament. Whether it's David or Solomon or Job, how come you say you bless the righteous and curse the evil, yet in this life, it seems like the evil get everything and many times the righteous get nothing? How does that work? And here, Asaph looked at that and said, "You know what? I'm telling you, I almost fell down into that hole."

Psalm 73:4-5 He says, "For there are no pains in their death but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men."

Of course, that's what it seemed like. They had whatever they wanted. Man, they ate at the best restaurants. They drove around the nicest chariots, the nicest horses. You know, they had everything. They had the nicest furniture. They had the nicest jewelry. Every place they went, people treated them as if they were special.

Psalm 73:6-7 He says, "Violence covers them like a garment." I love this statement. "Their eyes bulge with abundance."

You know, it's like, "Whoa." It's like their eyes are bigger than life. They're like a cartoon character. You see cartoon characters, whoa, boinging and their eyes come out, okay? Whoa, their eyes just bulge because they see everything that's out there. They have more than their heart could wish. More than their heart could wish. Verse 13, here's where he was going when he said, "I almost slipped."

Psalm 73:13 "Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence."

He said, basically, living this life of obeying God was pretty stupid. That's where he was going. They get everything, and what do I get? What do I get in life? I don't get all the new stuff. I don't walk down the street and people say, "Oh, there's Asaph." You know? It seems like the more you have sometimes, the more people give you, right? Because they want to get your favor. Asaph said, "You know, I just reached the point where I was like, 'My following God really doesn't mean anything.'"

Psalm 73:16 "When I thought of how to understand this, it was too painful for me."

He said, "I was all torn up inside trying to figure out, why do I obey God? Why is it that they seem blessed and I don't? Maybe following God isn't that big a deal." And he says, "I was filled with pain. It was too painful to even wrestle through this."

Psalm 73:17 He says, "Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I understood their end."

He says, "When I went back to the temple, I went back to worshiping God, I got on my knees before God and I remembered my teachings. I remembered what he says." And he stepped back and said, "You know what? Whoa, was I dangerously close to falling into that pit because life with God is better than anything else." In fact, he says that in verse 13. I'm sorry, verse 21.

Psalm 73:21 “Thus my heart was grieved and I was vexed in my mind. I was so foolish and ignorant.”

“Here I am depressed, stressed out." And he says, "I'm just being ignorant. I'm being a fool here trying to think that all these things other people have and being envious of them, wanting what they have." He says, "When I finally thought about it."

Psalm 73:22-24 He says, "I was like a beast before you." He says, "I was just like an animal. That's all I was becoming. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory."

Psalm 73:25 And here's what he realized. "Whom have I in heaven but you?''

And all this stuff, is a nice meal right now what everything in life is about? Now, Asaph was having nice meals too. That's not the point. But looking at what other people have, he says, "Is that what this is about or is it God knows me, I know God? These other people don't. Psalm 73:25:26 “And there is none upon Earth that I desire beside you. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

He says, "I'm living this life forever. I'm living for eternal life. I am living to continue on." And he turned it around. Here's an entire psalm about a man who wrestled with envy over what other people had. And remember, it isn't just the physical wealth or things that we can envy. I mean, Saul envied David because of God's favor upon him. He felt he deserved David's success. He wanted David's success so much so he was willing to kill David so that he could say, "I'm more successful than David."

Every one of us has a purpose from God. Understand that. Every one of you here has a purpose that God has given to you, designed by God. And that's why we can't fall into the spiritual trap, just like we can't fall into the spiritual trap of saying, "Wow, that person got something I deserve, I want." And what happens? You begin hating that person. You ever watch...and I'm not picking on girls here, because it just is such an obvious thing. Well, I used the jellies, that was girls. Maybe I shouldn't use a girl as an example.

Watch two little boys, little guys. Give a gift to one and not the other. And the other one will feel bad. There's nothing wrong with that, right? Well, they feel bad. "I didn't get a gift." But you watch how many times, soon as the adults turn their back, they either take the gift from the other kid or punch them, right? Why? At first, it's I feel bad, and then the envy. The envy clicks in. The envy isn't just, "I feel bad because I didn't get a gift." That's not evil, that's not wrong, that's just a feeling. The envy is, "I deserve it, you don't, so I'm taking it from you, or I'm just going to hurt you. I'll just punch you, or kick you, or do something mean to you." Right? We've watched little kids do that all the time.

There is envy, it's at the core of our human nature. God loves every one of us, but he has a different purpose for us. If we're not careful, we will measure ourselves by somebody else's purpose that God has for them. Because inside the church of God, there are different abilities. Inside the church of God, there's people going to own more than other people. Inside the church of God, there's going to be people who are more rich than others. And it's not that the poor are more righteous or the rich are more righteous. There's different purposes. And there's different talents. And there's different skills. And that's reality.

In a world that says we have to make everything equal, you can't. You can't make everything equal. Right? You can try, but you can't. I mean, I'm never going to make a million dollars, right? I'm never going to make a million dollars. And that's okay. But that doesn't mean I hate people who make a million dollars a year. Kim and I were talking the other day about we're buying a house that we may not... Retirement time, we may have to give up that house. We may not be able to pay it off before then. That's reality. And she said, "You know, I remember the days when all we could do was rent and we were happy." That's right. That's right. I remember when all we did was rent, and we were happy. And we can go back to renting. You know, if my son-in-law doesn't take care of us, we will live under a bridge someplace. They're here today, so I can...

So I'm not using any of the kids as examples as I usually do because they're here today. But you know what I mean? It's okay. Or you can get to the place, "Well, other people get houses. We don't. You know, that's because maybe God isn't blessing me." We see people get blessings from God, all kinds of physical blessings. How do we treat each other in the church? How do we treat each other in the church? Oscar Wilde, the famous writer, wrote a story, I'll paraphrase it here. It was about a man who wanted to be righteous before God. So he became a monk and lived as a hermit in the desert.

So he becomes a monk and he lives as a hermit in the desert and gives up everything. He sleeps on, you know, just on the ground. He doesn't drink wine. He doesn't eat any good food. He doesn't bathe because he's showing his righteousness because his brother, you see, was the opposite. His brother slept around with women. His brother was a drunkard. His brother partied all the time. He was good for nothing. He was worthless. And he was going to not be like his brother. So the demons decide, "We're  going to get this guy."

So demon after demon comes along. They tempt him with women. They tempt him with wealth. They tempt him with everything they can think of, good food. And the guy stands against them every time. And then Satan shows up. And he says, "You guys are such amateurs at this." He said, "You're such amateurs, you're trying all this stuff." He goes over and he leans over, and to the monk's ear, he whispers, "Your brother was just ordained as a bishop." And he sits there, and his face starts to get contorted. "You mean my dirty rotten old brother? You mean God would let him be a bishop when I'm out here in the desert?" And now he's just crazy with envy. Satan turns around and looks at the demons and says, "That's the kind of things I do."

See, we can even be envious of God's gift to somebody else. Our second thing is learn to be thankful for what you have. I read something the other day about the Orthodox Jews I thought was interesting. It said that most Orthodox Jews are encouraged every morning when you wake up before you get out of bed, the first thing you should do is say a prayer to God, basically asking for His guidance and thanking Him for the day ahead. Can you imagine what would happen if we all did that? Before you do anything, when you first wake up, you just say a prayer to God, asking Him to guide you through the day and thanking Him for this day because this is the day He's given you. You may not have another one tomorrow.

I was out walking through the neighborhood the other day and some guy comes walking by me and he said, "I hope you have a good day." And I looked at him and I didn't even think about what I said. I said, "Well, it's the day that's been given to me." And he stopped and he says, "Thank you, brother." Okay, and we walked on. Yeah, it's the day that's been given to me. It's all you got right now. How much of it do we waste not being thankful for what we have? I've always admired something about my wife. She says sometimes at night, she is laid and just thinks about, before she goes to bed, all the good things. You know, count all the blessings. Because if you don't, you'll go crazy, right?

What did God give me today? What did God give me today? How can you be envious when you're starting to list all the things He gave you? Let's go to James 3. I'm going to read this from the New International Version because it's written in such a way... You can read it so easily out loud.

James 3:13 "Who is wise in understanding among you? Let him show up by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom."

Now, you say, "What does this have to do with envy?" Well, just wait a minute, we'll get there. He says here this wisdom, this is real wisdom. How do we know real wisdom? Because real wisdom is shown by a good life. In other words, wisdom is shown by its fruits, by its results. Wisdom has to do with decision-making. Wisdom is how we make our decisions, or foolishness is how we make our decisions. And there's a humility here before this wisdom. The humility that comes from wisdom. So we have a couple of very important things here. There's a good life. There's good deeds. There's action, there's conduct, and there's humility. That's what this wisdom is about. Now, let's look at verse 14.

James 3:14 "But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth."

Don't be proud of your bitter envy and selfish ambition so that you boast about it. That's very interesting. You think, "Well, wait a minute, he's comparing two things." Well, we're going to get there where he's going. He talks about this wisdom that creates good decisions, good deeds, and humility. And then he talks about bitter envy. Let me tell you something about bitter, or about envy. You stay envious long enough and you become bitter. You will hate life.

And I've met people like that. All they can do is talk about how people mistreat them. All they do is talk about how rotten their life has been. All they do is talk about every bad thing that anybody's done to them going clear back 30 years, and how they deserve much more, and all these other people don't deserve what they have. And they're bitter people. Bitter envy and selfish ambition, selfishness. Now, why would he mention these two things in talking about this wisdom that produces good decisions and good deeds and a good life and humility? Well, let's look at the next verse.

Such wisdom, not the good wisdom, but the wisdom of bitter envy and selfish ambition. Now, why does he say that's a wisdom? Here's why. Bitter envy and selfish ambition is natural for us. If somebody else has got it, I should get the same thing. And if I don't, they're wrong. Okay? Selfish ambition, I'm going to do whatever I have to do in my life to get mine. Now, I haven't watched, you know, ABC, NBC, CBS for years, but it seems like every time I see commercials for new shows, they're all about people... Every story is the same. It's about people, they're going to get theirs and they're going to, you know, have their empire and they're going to push down everybody else and they're going to be on top. Well, I'm glad I don't watch those stations anymore. I wouldn't want to watch that after a while. Everything's about getting to the top, pushing down others, the struggle to be there. The struggle of success, selfish ambition. See, this seems wise. This seems wise.

James 3:15 He says, "But such wisdom does not come from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, and of the devil."

Of the devil. If what we're going through in 1 Corinthians 13 is the essential elements of the nature of God. And so far, we've gone through longsuffering, kindness, and does not envy. Understand, the opposite of those things here, envy and selfish ambition, is part of Satan's nature, is part of his essential nature. You and I have elements of Satan's essential nature in us. And we have to recognize that because we're to come out of that and have the mind of Christ developed in us.

So when we are filled with envy, here's what happens, and this selfish ambition.

James 3:16 He says, "For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every evil practice."

He says, "When you find this motivation as part of the essential nature of Satan and the demonic powers, the demons, who are driven by envy and they're driven by selfish ambition," he says, "You're  going to find chaos, you're  going to find disorder, and you're  going to find every evil practice." Boy, envy's not such a minor issue anymore, is it? Does not envy. Does not envy, we're told, is part of what God wants us to become. And yet it's part of the wisdom we have. Is part of the wisdom we have. Ephesians 5, let's read here and then we only have one more point here. Ephesians 5:15. Ephesians chapter 5. And let's look at verse 15.

Ephesians 5:15-16 Paul says, "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as of wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil."

How you walk in both Hebrew and Greek, or the way it's used in the Old and New Testament, it just doesn't mean how you physically walk. In this context, it's your purpose, it's your decisions, it's how you live life. It's the purpose for your life, it's the goal of your life. It's why you do what you do. We could say lifestyle, you know? See then that your lifestyle is wise, which we already looked at this definition of wisdom that has to do with godly wisdom and this thing that's natural wisdom for us.

Ephesians 5:17-19 "Therefore, do not be unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."

Now, we're reading through this, and, "Oh, yeah, that's sort of nice." No, no, these are actual instructions for the people of God in the church, which shows you that music is important to what we do. Both when we sing to God, even privately, and when we sing together. But notice the next little part of this sentence.

Ephesians 5:20 "Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

We have to be thankful. We have to thank God all the time. When you thank God for what you... When you stop and spend a little time thanking God for what's good in your life, it changes the way you see everything. This is why with everything that's going on right now in the world, I'm covering envy. Why? Because the world is going to drag us into it. And to keep that from happening, we have to begin to really understand the level of conversion God wants us to have. That's why. That's what we have to be doing. That's where our energy has to be. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to become? Not just do, but what do you want me to be? Which involves obedience. But is it obedience for what reason? Is it because it's part of you?

Our last reason is a way to combat envy is to learn to share in the joy of another person's blessings. And this can be hard for us. But somebody else got a blessing. Why not me? Somebody else got a job promotion. Why not me? Why somebody else got this? Why not me? Why not? Why not? It's hard, isn't it? We have to learn to experience the joy of somebody else's blessing and be thankful for them. Be thankful for them.

There's a scripture here in 1 Corinthians 12, our last scripture. You know, 1 Corinthians 13, of course, talks about agape. As I mentioned before, 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the gifts of the Spirit, which seems so important but Paul says, "Let me tell you something that's more important than that, a more excellent way than these gifts God gives us. Because sometimes gifts cause actual division in a group of people or envy in a group of people." He says here in verse 26.

1 Corinthians 12:26 "If one member suffers."

He's talking to the church, agape begins in our families and in the church. This is where we learn it. We learn it here in the most difficult situations because he says, "No, you got to come together and be where you are."

Any congregation you're in is pretty much dysfunctional on one level or another, isn't it? So you be where God puts you because he has a purpose for putting you where you are. He puts you where you are so that you become what He wants you to become and you will help others in this journey. That's why He put you there.

1 Corinthians 12:26 He says, "And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it."

And we can apply this not only to honor, we can apply it to any blessing in life. This principle applies. When somebody else has something good happen to them, it's easy for us to look at the bad things in our lives and not experience joy with them. Now, what we have to do is let go and experience joy with them. Be happy for them. Be happy for what they're getting, not what we don't get. Because all through life, you'll get your blessing from God. And isn't it nice if you get a blessing from God and other people are happy about it? So we have to do that with others, but that's not easy. That's not easy. But we can never understand why he says, "Do not envy," until we actually reach this level where we're enjoying when somebody else gets something. Not in the world because somebody was dishonest, okay? The thing is the church. But sometimes it's even people in the world. I mean, a family member or something gets a blessing, and you're just thankful they got it. If our first thought is, "They don't deserve that," especially inside the church, we've missed the point. We're supposed to be thankful they got it.

Envy saps us of our happiness. It'll destroy your happiness. And it'll destroy your ability to experience God's purpose in your life because you become locked in and obsessed with physical things and you have this discontent towards a person. or sometimes towards life, everybody. It's not fair. Everybody has a good life but me. Missing what God's doing. And you miss God's purpose and activity in your life. It clouds our emotions so that we actually can't love other people. In fact, we tend to see other people as roadblocks to our happiness. The surest way to destroy happiness is to see as if everybody else is keeping you from being happy. So if I could just make everybody do what I want, then I'll be happy. That's going to be a miserable experience because some of us know people like that. And you know what? You don't want to be around them after a while, do you?

If I can just get you to do what I want, I'll be happy. Because we envy. We envy others. Or if we're not careful, unfortunately, we have the example of Asaph who realized, "Look where I'm headed." And his was just because other people had physical things. In Saul's part, it was because another man had more popularity than he did and he became envious.

When we refuse to be dragged into the pit of envy, something happens. There was a simple instruction given by Jesus Christ that we've all heard over and over and over again. Probably most of you could quote it by memory. But when we clear envy from our lives so we're no longer comparing ourselves with other people, we're thankful for what we have, and we actually share joy, experience joy with others who get things, when we do that, our whole approach of what we want changes, what we are seeking changes. We're not just seeking a new promotion. If you get a promotion, that's great, but that's not what your whole heart and mind is set on. When we free envy from our lives, then we can begin to actually have fulfilled in us what Jesus Christ says on the Sermon on the Mount when He says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."