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Envy: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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Thanks for joining us, on beyond the sermon.
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The podcast of First Methodist Church in Collingswood New
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Jersey. Our goal is not only to share
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our sermons, but to go beyond the sermon and conversation
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about what we're learning and what God is doing in our lives,
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and in our community, this sermon comes from our 20:23
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lent. Sermon series seven, deadly
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sins. It's the power of God to move us
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from death to New Life. You can find more information
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about our church, Fu MC Collingswood dot-org.
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Thanks for listening. Wednesday.
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Ash Wednesday. We start the Lenten season
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officially unofficially, though. We're starting today because I
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needed an extra Sunday to get our sermon series in.
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And for the next seven weeks, we're going to be talking about
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everybody's favorite topic sin, aren't you excited?
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Seven weeks on Sand but not just any sin.
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We're going to be talking about The seven deadly sins.
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And if you don't have them right at the top of your mind, you
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can't quite read all of them in the number seven up there.
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The seven deadly sins are Pride, Envy wrath sloth greed, lust and
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gluttony It's gotta be fun, isn't it?
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It's going to be fun. This is so we're happy to talk
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about these seven deadly sins. But where do these seven deadly
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sins? Where's this list of sins?
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Come from? Because you could spend the
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whole rest of the day, looking through your Bible, trying to
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find this exact list of sins, and you're not going to find it,
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you're not going to find any place in scripture where it says
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and the seven deadly sins are and get that whole list of
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Pride, Envy wrath, etc, etc, Instead they're they're the
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result of thoughtful Christian reflection over time
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specifically by people like the desert fathers who like one name
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among them. Remember this?
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All you down in front, write it down.
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Evagrius the vagaries. He was a desert.
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Father, you won't remember any of this.
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All right? He was a desert father back in
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the 4th century and these desert.
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There is got their names because they all moved out into the
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Wilderness. They moved out into the desert
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because everywhere, they looked around them.
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In society, they said the world is so sinful.
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And corrupt, how can we follow Jesus in a world that lives?
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Like hell, right? How can we follow Jesus in a
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world? That's so corrupted.
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So the only answer for them was we've got to get away from the
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world. well, we've got to get away from society and so they
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moved from the cities, and the towns out into the Wilderness,
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into the desert, they built huts and monasteries out there and it
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wasn't long before they realize that moving away from society,
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they had not moved away from sin because the sin wasn't just
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found in the society and the culture, and the cities that
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they lived in the Sin was As in them, it was in their hearts.
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They couldn't get away from it. And so they started trying to
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figure out what to do about it. How to live, like, God was
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calling them to and eventually by about the 6th Century Pope
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Gregory kind of standardize the list and brought it all
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together, but but what makes these seven sins in particular,
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what makes them deadly sins. What makes them deadly or
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Mortal? Is the sense in which they lead
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us, spiritually to death. Now, they might not seem as
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serious as some other sins that we might think about, right?
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We don't really tend to think that anger, is really quite as
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bad as murdering someone, right? We don't think that lust is, as
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bad as Sleeping with someone else's husband or wife.
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We might know that greed is wrong but we don't think it's as
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bad as actually breaking into someone's house or store and
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stealing the things we want. But the reality is these sins,
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these seven are matters of the heart, not matters of behavior.
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It's the idea that these are kind of the chief sins.
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The sins that lead us to all these other sins.
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These are the sins that name the sinful.
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Orientations of our hearts, not just a momentary stumbling, not
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just a behavior that we're stuck in or a one-time action.
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But the direction our heart is headed.
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And when Jesus preached The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew
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chapters 5 through 7, which is where we're going to spend most
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of our time during this Lenten season.
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We're going to hear over and over again.
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Jesus is going to say you heard it said by Moses, right?
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And in the law and the Ten Commandments, don't kill,
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people. Don't murder people.
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But I'm telling you and he goes on to explain.
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Plain how it's not just the actual actions that matter.
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It's what's in your heart. So that's what we're going to
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look at. And that's why we're going to
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take the next almost two months to study these seven deadly
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sins. Because they're not just the
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sins that are out there in the world.
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They're our sins or the sins that are in US.
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Gotta cross my fingers and go out on a Ledge and say, most of
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us here, probably haven't thought about murdering anybody
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this week. How many of you were getting
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ready this morning? And your kid did something or
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your spouse did something. You got angry?
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These seven deadly sins. They show us ourselves because
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while we can try really hard and we can buckle down and we can
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generally control our Behavior, right?
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The things that we do, we can control that if we try hard
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enough, we fleas enough willpower.
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But who can control their heart. Who can control the things that
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are going on inside of them. So these seven deadly sins.
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They show us where we still need God's help God's grace and his
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Mercy. Because he sins like Austin.
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Say they separate us from God and ultimately, they separate us
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from one another. And God wants to do something
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about these sins to move us from death to New Life, to change us,
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and raise us into that new life. That was made possible by his
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death and Resurrection. We've got to recognize these
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sins when they're active in our lives and we've got to confess
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them and repent of them and turn away from them.
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There's a quote that's come up at least four times in the last
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week for me and things. I've been listening to things,
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have been reading emails. I've gotten at least four times
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this week, and here's this quotes from aw, tozier Who was
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the Founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance
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denomination. And tozier said this, what we
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think about when we think about God is the most important thing
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about us, I one more time, what we think about when we think
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about God is the most important thing about us, Because what we
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think about when we think about God shapes, everything we do and
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it shapes how we see everything around us and so it's true too.
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When we think about God, and how he responds to sin And so when
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we think about God, do we envision God sitting up there on
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his throne, which is probably far more beautiful than this
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little chair. But do we see him sitting up
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there on his throne, just waiting to crack the whip at us
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when we step out of line, when we make a mistake, when we make
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a bad choice, or when we think about God and the sin in our
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lives, do we think about God who gives himself and gave him self
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to work for our freedom and our transformation, Because it
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changes what we think about Sin and changes, what we think
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about, how we respond to the work that God is doing in our
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lives. So that's a little bit about why
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we're going to be spending these next seven weeks looking at
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these seven deadly sins, because there are our sin So today we're
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going to start off, we're going to be talking about Envy.
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Envy, which we often think about as jealousy, or greed, or
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covetousness, but it isn't quite the same as any one of those.
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He cnv isn't just Desiring what someone else has.
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All right? That's coveting.
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That's that's one of the big 10, right?
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Thou shalt not covet. All these things.
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But it's also not just wanting more good things.
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That we call that greed Envy isn't quite the same as greed,
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but it's not. It's also not just holding on
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tightly to the things that we love because we're afraid we're
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going to lose them. That's what jealousy is, or at
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least what we've classically called jealousy.
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Cnv is thinking that you deserve, what someone else has
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more than they do. Envy is thinking you deserve
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what someone else has more than they do.
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And these about finding our worth in comparison with other
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people. Finding our status and where we
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belong in relation to the others around us.
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And ultimately tearing down those other people who have the
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things that we want, according to Saint Augustine's prayer
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book, which is a book of prayer and practice, with disciplines,
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and habits and patterns for building a strong Christian,
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spiritual life. They say that Envy can show
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itself in the following way. So, listen to this list, I think
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it's going to be a little more extensive than than we imagined.
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But listen to this list and think about how you've seen
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these things. Play out either in your life.
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Or in the life of others around you and we can show itself in
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the following ways. Feeling offended at the talents
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successes or Good Fortune of others selfish or unnecessary
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rivalry and competition. Pleasure another's,
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difficulties, or distress. Ill will for someone reading
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false motives into other people's behavior belittling
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others. False accusations backbiting
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slander, the initiation collection or retelling of
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Gossip arousing, fostering or organizing antagonism against
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other people. Scorn of someone else's
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abilities or failures teasing or bullying ridicule of persons
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institutions or ideals and prejudice against those.
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We consider inferior who consider us inferior or who
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seemed to threaten our security or position.
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That's Envy. That's how Envy can show itself.
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Not a lot of good in it, right. At least, when we look at some
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of the other seven deadly sins, we could say, well, at least
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gluttony starts off with some pleasure.
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Not. So with Envy.
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Envy tends to be the one. Deadly sin.
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People don't really want to confess.
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Because to admit that we are envious of.
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Someone means that in some way, we feel inferior to that person.
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We don't really like to talk about Envy.
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But we see it everywhere in our culture, our society, our
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culture is based on competitive comparison, we find are worth
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and the worth of others, only in measuring them in relation to
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each other. It's in all of our advertising,
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our whole advertising system is built on Envy, right?
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You see a commercial for our car, your life will be just
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perfect. If you buy our car, you'll have
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all the right status. If you just buy our products,
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you'll be worth it. If you buy what we're selling,
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but more often, Than kind of the Envy that's out there we
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experienced Envy as a close sin. In the workplace, or with our
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neighbors, even our families. We don't really Envy the people
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who are way out Beyond us, right?
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None of us really imagine. We're going to wake up one day
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and be the Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos, or somebody like that
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who's multi-billion dollar, we may have dreams while we're
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sleeping about all that. But it's really kind of out of
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reach for us. So we don't really Envy those
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people. We Envy those who are within
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reach those who are just ahead of us.
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The neighbor who rolls into the driveway with a new Lexus or BMW
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the sister or brother, whose house is just a little bit
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bigger or in just a little bit nicer of a neighborhood.
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The co-worker who gets promoted ahead, Of us.
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This is where we most often experience, Envy, it's close.
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And so if this is some of how we see Envy in the world around us,
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What does Jesus have to say to us today?
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About Envy? Even if we don't find it in the
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list in the Bible, that doesn't mean it's not in there.
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And Jesus tells us. That sin of envy.
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It's not just out there in the world.
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It's in us and he tells the story of these workers and the
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vineyard and the landowner. Jeremy red Forest.
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I just wanna walk through it for a minute.
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Jesus is telling his disciples and the crowds that are
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gathered. He's just been teaching them,
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you know, the whole bit about the little children, let them
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come to me. The Rich, Young Ruler who says,
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how can I get into heaven? And God says, or Jesus says,
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will keep the Commandments. He said, I'm doing that.
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Jesus, will sell everything you have and give away the money to
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the poor. Then you can enter into the
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kingdom of heaven. And then we get to this story.
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It says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain landowner.
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And this certain landowner, he's got a Vineyard and he wants
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people to come and work in his Vineyard till he goes into the
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Town Square where the people were looking for work.
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Would hang out and he looks and he sees some people, so he goes
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up to him. He says all right.
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I will give you one Denarius. Anybody know what a Denarius is
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as an old coin, that's what it means but it was equivalent to
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one day's wage a living. Wait, he's I will pay you one
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day's wage if you'll come and work.
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One day's work in my Vineyard. And so these guys say okay, we
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agree to that will do that, no problem. so they go and they
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start working the the landowner he goes back 9:00 Says, oh
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there's still some people here. Let me hire them too.
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So I'll pay you. What's right?
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If you go and work from now until the end of the day and
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goes back at noon and he goes back at 3 and he does the same
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thing. He goes back at 5:00 the end of
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the workday and there are still some people hanging out there.
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Why, why were they hanging out there?
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Why were they waiting? Because they didn't have any
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work to do and they knew that if no one came and hired them for
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that day, they had nothing to take home to their family that
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night. And so they waited and they
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hoped and they're still there and the landowner comes and
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says, why are you still here? They tell what nobody hired us.
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So he says, well you go and you work in my Vineyard to doesn't
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promise them. Anything doesn't tell him what
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he's going to pay them. And so they go and when the end
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of the day came, he said to his Foreman go and pay call them all
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in, from, from The Vineyard, pay them for the work.
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They've done this day, starting with the ones, we just hired
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last, and working your way to those who we started earlier.
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Pay them each a Denarius. So the the foreman calls all the
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people in, they start to line up to get their pay and he starts
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with the ones who had only been there an hour, he puts a
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Denarius in their hand. And he keeps going and I'm sure
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those men who had only worked for an hour.
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We're shocked and humbled and grateful for what they were
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given that day because now they had something to take home to
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their families. Meanwhile, you've got at the end
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of the line, those who have been working all day long and they're
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watching, what's happening? They see the Denarius going into
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each hand. These ones would only worked an
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hour. You can almost imagine.
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They're think alright well these guys are getting one Denarius
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for working an hour. Imagine what this guy is going
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to give to us, who have been working here all day long.
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All through the heat of the day, And the foreman keeps coming,
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and it's a Denarius in each hand.
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Till he gets to those who are hired first and they get the
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that same Denarius in their hand.
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I can almost imagine, it's okay to read scripture with your
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imagination, go especially when it's Jesus.
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Telling a story. I can just imagine though these
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early workers looking at each other, What gives?
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They got paid the same amount that we did.
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We've been here all day We've been here through the Heat and
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the Sun and all of it. So the land owner, hears them
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grumble. What's the matter guys?
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What's going on? I'm not being unfair to you.
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Friends. Didn't you agree to work for a
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Denarius? They didn't get less than what
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they had been promised. Just take your pay and go.
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I want to give the one who has hired last the same as I gave
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you. Don't I have the right to do
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what I want with my own money. Here's the key sentence.
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Or are you envious? Because I am generous.
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Are you envious? Because of my generosity.
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See, Jesus is telling the people how in our hearts we believe
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that the the amount of time we've served or how, well, we've
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served should be reflected in the rewards that we receive in
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life. And how well we followed God
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should mean that we get certain blessings.
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She's saying no, that's not how it works.
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Are you going to begrudge? God has generous generosity?
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Are you going to begrudge God giving a gift to someone else?
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Just because he worked in your life differently.
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But this isn't the only place Jesus talked about Envy.
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About he talked in The Sermon on the Mount about how we want to
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tear other people down and bring everyone to the same common
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level rather than rejoicing. In the good things that God is
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doing in their life, are dealing with the sin in our own life.
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In Matthew chapter 7, beginning in verse 3, Jesus said, why do
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you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no
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attention to the plank? Ink in your own eye.
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How can you say to your brother? Let me take the speck out of
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your eye. When all the time, there is a
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plank in your own eye. You hypocrite first, take the
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plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to
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remove the speck from your other from your brother's eye.
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We're so quick to point out the sin or the failing in another
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person. We're so quick to try to point
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at anything. We can to bring someone else
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down, because we think it's the only way that we can lift our
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self up. Because Envy says, we only have
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worth, we can only find our value in comparison to the
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people around us. so if this is the problem, Of Envy in our
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hearts. Doesn't sound like there's a
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whole lot of Hope. How do we work to deal with the
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Envy? That's in our own hearts?
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That's not quite the right question though because we can
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never deal with the sin in our own heart.
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So a better question we should ask is how do we work with Jesus
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to deal with the Envy in our hearts because it's only Jesus.
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It's only God who can deal with the sin in our hearts.
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So, I want to give you a few ways that I think we can
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cooperate with the grace of God and our lives to fight against
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Envy. First of all, we must find our
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worth in Christ and Christ Alone in the love that God has shown
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for us in the love that God has for us.
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The love that says that while we were still sinners Christ died
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for us, We've Been Loved with an everlasting love.
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John says how great is the love? That was lavished on us that we
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should be called the Sons and Daughters of God, we are loved
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by God. And until we can find are worth
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their until we can find our value there.
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We're always going to struggle with Envy.
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We're always going to struggle with comparison.
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We've got to find our worth in Christ.
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But I think we also need to choose gratitude for what God is
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doing. Not just in our own lives, but
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in the lives of others, it's been interesting to me this
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week, to watch the response of people on Twitter and different
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places to The Awakening that's been happening down as Barry and
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has spread to some other colleges, some people are
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rejoicing there. So So excited about what God is
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doing there, even though they're they're distant from that place,
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even though they're not involved in that place, they might not
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even be in the same movement or tradition as Asbury, but they're
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excited about what God is doing. But there are others. there are
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others who look at what's happening there and they try to
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cast doubt that this is a move of God, they questioned the
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authenticity of whether this is God working or it's just people
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trying to drum up people's emotions and enthusiasm Because
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God isn't working in the way they expect God to work or
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they're envious. That God is working there, but
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he's not working here in my church, that way.
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Friends, we've got to be grateful for what God is doing
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everywhere. Not just in our lives, but in
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the lives of others. And third thing, last thing, I
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think we need to seek opportunities to show kindness.
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That gets no recognition. We need to intentionally choose
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to practice, not envy. Because if Envy looks at people
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and says, I want What they have? Kindness looks at people and
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says, I want to do good for that person.
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It's love right there. Both fruit of the spirit love
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joy, peace, patience. Kindness we need to seek for
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opportunities where we can do kind things for people that may
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not ever get recognized. They may not ever get
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appreciated. But it turns our heart out from
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ourselves and toward other people.
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So it may be handing a dollar bill.
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To the guy panhandling in the middle of the street.
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It may be offering a cup of water to the construction
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workers, who are outside your door working on the power lines
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or whatever. Just looking for opportunities
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to choose to will the good for other people because Envy looks
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at our neighbors and thinks we deserve more than they do.
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But love looks at our neighbors. And wants their best. loving
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your neighbor as yourself has to start with loving yourself,
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which we can only do once we understand that God, first loved
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us, But envious people don't understand that and so they feel
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inferior to those around us, they feel like they have to
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grasp for what others have that give them their status and their
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worth. Friends.
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We have a choice, every time we feel that Envy rise up in US We
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can remember that none of us deserve God's grace.
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But God still chose to love us. We can choose to Rejoice at what
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God is doing in other people. And we can choose to work for
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kindness, even to those people who don't deserve it.
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Envy leads us ultimately to death to separation from God.
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But Jesus wants to give us new life and he wants that new life
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welling up within us to produce fruit fruit, like love and
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kindness and he makes that possible for us.