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Evil To Envy - Joseph: From Pit to Palace
76 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we delve into the powerful theme of envy and its devastating consequences. We'll explore the significance of biblical locations, such as Shechem, and how they shape the narrative of Jacob and his descendants. As we journey through this episode, we'll uncover the chilling story of betrayal, as Joseph's own brothers, driven by envy, sell him into slavery. Join us as we uncover the depths of the human heart and examine the dangers of envy, while seeking guidance on cultivating gratefulness and contentment in our own lives. Stay tuned as we dive deep into this thought-provoking topic and explore the transforming power of the gospel in our journey from envy to freedom.
Timestamps:
[00:00:40] Middle Eastern Bible context; God, not self.
[00:04:20] God weaves story through scripture and location.
[00:06:28] Jacob's name has two meanings: heel-grabber and deceiver. Deception plays a major role in his life, including Joseph's. Joseph's birth in Jacob's old age creates an unhealthy dynamic.
[00:11:15] Another dream: sun, moon, stars bowing.
[00:13:15] Plot to kill Joseph, but Reuben objects.
[00:19:22] Guidelines to avoid gossip; avoid unnecessary conversations.
[00:21:56] Listen, learn, and communicate with love.
[00:24:10] Joseph's coat caused the brothers to hate him.
[00:28:37] Importance of gratitude and focusing on oneself.
[00:29:43] Envy hinders progress; focus on yourself.
[00:34:33] Writer asks for permission to use sermon quote.
[00:39:31] "Prayed for Morgan's congregation, envying others."
[00:43:28] Choose love, reject lies, trust in Jesus.
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Transcript
Introduction to Joseph's Story in Genesis
00:00:00
Speaker
So we are beginning a seven-week series today in the story of Joseph as you see there on the screen.
00:00:05
Speaker
I'm incredibly excited about this series because Joseph's a really cool character and a really popular character. I encouraged you last week, if you are here for some of you, to just go ahead and start reading the story, get familiar with it. It starts in Genesis 37, goes all the way through the end of the book of Genesis, which is the first book of the Bible. So over the next seven weeks, if you read one chapter a day, you literally could read it at least three times, which means by the time we're done, you could preach sermons on Joseph, okay?
00:00:32
Speaker
So I encourage you, challenge you to do that, get more familiar with the story. Now before we begin the series, I want to say some things to you.
Understanding the Bible's Context and Purpose
00:00:40
Speaker
Just some general things. From time to time, I like to remind you of these important realities as we dive into the scripture. Just as an overall reminder of how to embrace and read scripture. Remember, this is a book that was written in the Middle East 2,000 years ago.
00:00:56
Speaker
by people who are Middle Eastern and the Middle East has an entirely different culture than ours. And so just for that reason alone, you have to be very careful that you read the Bible in the right way. I'm not saying it doesn't have the message of hope that we have that we want for this time in this day. I'm not at all saying that. What I'm saying is there are things in here that have to be read in the context of where they were written.
00:01:20
Speaker
So let me just remind you of four real important big picture things here before we dive into the story of Joseph. Number one, the question we ask when we come to Scripture should be, what does the Bible tell me about God, not what does the Bible tell me about me? Okay, you are not the focus of the Bible.
00:01:38
Speaker
The Bible was not written with you in mind. The Bible was written to reveal God to us. And so every single story from Genesis all the way through Revelation, even the life of Christ itself, is all about God revealing His nature to us, revealing His character to us. And when we come to a story, we should be asking the question, what does this teach me about who God is?
00:02:00
Speaker
The second thing that's really, really important, it kind of goes along with this, is this. The Bible, even though it is 66 books and it's written by dozens of authors over a period of probably 14 to 1600 years, even though it's all of that, it's literally one big story.
00:02:17
Speaker
from Genesis to Revelation consistently, again, telling the story of the life of God. Who is God? What is God? Why does God do what he does? What is the character of God? And the hero of the story is not the people we read about, and it's not you, the hero is Jesus. Okay? So if you read the Bible, if you go to any story, any part of the Bible, and read the Bible looking for you in the story, you've missed the point. It's like watching the Titanic and trying to figure out the brand name of the deck chairs they have on board.
00:02:49
Speaker
You'll get that later. There's not the point of the story, okay? The point of the story is something grand and significant that reaches across the ages. It is something entirely different than what, and so when we dig into it and we start asking questions about ourselves, we miss the point. In fact, I would say that's an early indicator that you're in a church that's preaching a prosperity gospel if it keeps telling you about who you are rather than what God is. Okay?
Significance of Biblical Locations
00:03:14
Speaker
Third thing, location is always important.
00:03:18
Speaker
When you read stories in the Bible and you see names and places that are listed, the Bible's not a random thing. It was driven by the Spirit of God as it was written, the Holy Spirit of God. And so when names are mentioned of locations, geographical locations, pay close attention to them because they always come back around to play a significant role later in scripture. How many of you have ever read a story and it says they went by such and such and you just read right through that, don't even pay attention to it? Rest of you are lying. So, I'm just kidding.
00:03:50
Speaker
The truth is that we do that. We have a tendency just to read through that, especially if we've read the story before. But for example, today the story is built around a place known as Shechem. Any of you ever heard of Shechem? Okay. Shechem is significant in the Old Testament for a lot of reasons. It starts with the person of Abraham himself. Abraham came through Shechem on his way to Canaan for the first time when he stopped at Shechem. It's literally the first place that God said to Abraham, this land will be
00:04:19
Speaker
belong to your descendants. It will be yours, okay? Now that didn't become true right then and there, so later on we see Isaac come back to Shechem. We see Jacob come back to Shechem. Today in the story, Jacob's people are living and residing near Shechem, and the guys take the sheep to Shechem.
00:04:35
Speaker
And then later, much later, several hundred years later, it comes back full circle that Joshua and literally millions of Hebrew people enter into the Promised Land and they stand at the place called Shechem to recommit themselves to the covenant that God created with them thousands of years before. So God is always weaving his story through scripture and location is always a significant part of it. Last thing I'll tell you this, the Bible is not exhaustive.
00:05:04
Speaker
It's not exhaustive. What do I mean by that? Well, it's kind of like a photo album. If I said to you, Lisa and I took a great trip to Rome, Italy, I would love for you to come see the pictures. You would come over, you would expect for me to pull out an album, and those pictures would show you highlights of the trip, right? They wouldn't show you, hey, this is Lisa waking up this morning.
00:05:24
Speaker
This is Lisa trying to get the knots out of her hair from where she slept last night. This is Lisa brushing her teeth. I mean, you wouldn't expect those kind of pictures. What you would expect is she and I having coffee near one of the great museums or us taking a boat ride on the river or something cool. You would see the highlights. This is what God has done when he has inspired scripture. He has brought the highlights of the story to us so we can pick up the significant moments. But we must understand there's always these other unrecorded moments that build to these highlights.
00:05:54
Speaker
And so there's significant things that we just don't know the history of. Sometimes we have the permission to kind of go, oh, well, this is where we connect the dots, but we have to be very careful on how we read the story. Now, specifically to the story of Joseph.
Joseph's Background and Family Dynamics
00:06:08
Speaker
Joseph's story is interesting because he is born to his father Jacob. Excuse me, Jacob. The patriarchs of the Hebrew religion were Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob later would have his name changed to
00:06:22
Speaker
Israel. Oh y'all are good. I got a smart class today. Awesome. Yes, Jacob's name would later become Israel. Jacob's name when he is born is given to him. It literally means two things. In Hebrew it means he who grabs the heel because he came out holding on to the heel of his brother Esau because they were twins. But it also means deceiver.
00:06:42
Speaker
And the reason that's important is because deception will play a major part of Jacob's life all the way through Joseph's life up to the end of Jacob's existence here on the earth. It's a huge part of his story.
00:06:55
Speaker
But Joseph was born to Jacob in his old age, and because of that, he takes a place in Jacob's life that's unhealthy. And we'll see that as we read through the story today. I'm gonna do something a little bit different. Cody, I want you to follow me on the screen, and I'm gonna read from the scripture today. We're gonna talk about bits and pieces of this as we go through, and then we're gonna talk about where I think God needed us to be this morning. Genesis, first book of the Bible, chapter 37, verse 1.
00:07:24
Speaker
Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. These are the family records of Jacob. At 17 years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father. Pay close attention to that. We'll come back to that later.
00:07:45
Speaker
Now, Israel, that's Jacob, loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a robe of many colors for him. So let me stop there for just a second and just go ahead and tell you this. Jacob's a bad parent, really bad parent, okay? First of all, his daughter Dinah is raped earlier in the book of Genesis, and he does nothing about it.
00:08:09
Speaker
His sons, though, take matters into their own hands. They go to the village that caused her to be raped and literally wipe out every man and boy in the village, kill them, which is a completely inappropriate response to what happened. Jacob does nothing about it. Reuben, his oldest son, sleeps with one of his mothers, stepmothers. Jacob does nothing about it.
00:08:32
Speaker
And here we hear that Jacob has a special place in his heart for Joseph, and he does what no parent should do. He shows favoritism in front of all the other sons, literally lets them know, hey, I love him, not as much as I don't love you as much as I love him. And so we see this played out all the way through the story. Verse four, it says, oh, wait, let me stop here for just a second. Some of you may go, my translation doesn't say robe of many colors. That's what we heard growing up, right? Go to many colors.
00:09:01
Speaker
With the Hebrew there, we really don't know what it means. Some translations say coat with a long sleeve. Some of them say a finely-ordained robe or an ornate robe. Some of them say a robe of many colors. The point isn't how nice it looked. The fact is that it looked really, really nice and it pointed to Joseph as the favorite child. And here's another reason why that's important.
00:09:30
Speaker
I told you that Reuben had slept with one of Jacob's wives. Reuben, being the senior, was the child who was supposed to get the inheritance of everything that came from Jacob. Well, obviously he lost that position because of what he did. And when Joseph received the coat of many colors from Jacob, it was Jacob's way of saying in front of all the other sons, this is now the one who will receive my inheritance. And it literally promoted him almost to a position of being over his brothers as they did their work.
00:10:00
Speaker
This is all important as we get back to the story. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.
Joseph's Dreams and Family Tensions
00:10:10
Speaker
This is the first time we hear that they hate him. Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. There's the second time. He said to them, listen to this dream I had. There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field.
00:10:26
Speaker
Suddenly my sheath stood up and your sheath gathered around it and bowed down to my sheath. Are you really going to reign over us? His brothers asked him. Are you really going to rule us? So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said. That's the third time he has now been told that we have been told that they hated him.
00:10:47
Speaker
This past week I had somebody email me and said, hey, I want to ask a question. I've been reading ahead in Genesis to read the story of Joseph. I'm excited about this. I really love the story of Joseph. I'm just curious, what do you think Joseph was thinking when he told his brothers these crazy dreams? Was he ignorant or was he arrogant? And the answer is yes. He was both pretty ignorant to do something like this, but very arrogant to do it as well.
00:11:12
Speaker
Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. Look, he said, I had another dream and this time the sun, moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me. He told his father and brothers and his father rebuked him. What kind of dream is this that you have had? He said, Am I and your mother and your brothers really going to come down and bow down to the ground before you? His brothers were jealous of him.
00:11:35
Speaker
But his father kept the matter in mind. The Hebrew phrase there literally means he kept the door open to the possibility. And the reason he did that is because Jacob is a man of God. Despite all his faults and all his failures, he has had encounters and conversations with God, and he knows something to be true, and that is this. If God brings you a dream, it's important. If he brings you two dreams, then it's really important, and then more likely it's going to come true.
00:12:00
Speaker
So he had to keep an eye open and heart open to this possibility because now Joseph has had two separate dreams that confirm this idea that he's going to be an authority over his brothers. His brothers had gone to pasture their flocks at Shacom. Very good. Stay with me.
00:12:18
Speaker
Israel said to Joseph, your brothers you know are pastoring the flocks at Shechem. Get ready, I'm sending you to them. I'm ready, Joseph replied. Then Israel said to him, go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing and bring word back to me. So he sent him from the Hebron Valley and he went to Shechem. A man found him there, wandering in the field and asked him, what are you looking for? You know what that means? Joseph was outstanding in this field. This is what you pay to come see.
00:12:49
Speaker
Just kidding. He says in verse 16, I'm looking for my brothers, Joseph said, can you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks? They've moved on from here, the man said. I heard them say, let's go to Dothan. So Joseph set out after his brothers and he found them at Dothan.
Joseph Sold into Slavery
00:13:05
Speaker
They saw him in the distance and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another, oh, look, here comes the dream expert.
00:13:14
Speaker
So now, come on, let's kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal ate him, then we'll see what becomes of his dreams." When Reuben, this is the older son, the oldest son, when Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from them. Now that sounds sweet, and it sounds like maybe Reuben's had a change of heart, but we're going to see the secret behind Reuben here in just a second. He said, let's not take his life. Reuben also said to them, don't shed blood, throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him.
00:13:44
Speaker
intending to rescue him from them and return him to his father. I believe, and you'll see this later, that Reuben was just trying to get back in good graces with his father. He really didn't care about Joseph. He just thought if I rescue the favorite son, then maybe I'll get some of that inheritance back. I'll prove my point later. When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off Joseph's robe, the robe of many colors he had on. They took him and threw him into a pit.
00:14:07
Speaker
The pit was empty without water. They sat down to eat a meal, and when they looked up, there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. The camels were carrying aromatic gum, balsam, and resin going down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, what do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? See, even in this moment, their biggest concern is how do we get a profit out of this? How do we benefit from this?
00:14:34
Speaker
Come on, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh." Isn't that sweet and compassionate? When Midianite traders, that word Midianite is also the different name for the Ishmaelites, so it's the same people even though he's changed the name here. When Midianite traders passed by his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for 20 pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph to Egypt.
00:15:01
Speaker
When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, the boy is gone. What am I going to do? You see, there was no concern for Joseph there. It was all about him. It was all about how am I going to be taken care of now that my plan has been ruined. He says, what am I going to do?
00:15:24
Speaker
So they took Joseph's robe, slaughtered a male goat, and dipped the robe in its blood. They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, we found this, examined it. Is it your son's robe or not? His father recognized it. It is my son's robe, he said. A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces.
00:15:43
Speaker
Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And just as if you didn't have enough evidence that he was a bad parent, listen to the next line. No, he said, I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning. And his father wept for him. It's as if he was saying, I really don't care about the rest of you. He's gone. My life is over.
00:16:14
Speaker
there stood around him 11 other sons and at least one daughter. Meanwhile the media night sold Joseph and Egypt to Potiphar and officer Ophiro and the captain of the guards. So like many of you I have read the story most of my life been taught it in Sunday school those kinds of things and one of the questions I've always asked is what would drive 11 brothers to want to kill
00:16:37
Speaker
Joseph. What would cause them to have such intense hatred for him that they would act this way? Here's four things I came up with. Number one, this huge moral and spiritual gap that existed between Joseph and his brothers. You see, I love the Bible because the Bible never shies away from telling the truth.
00:16:59
Speaker
Even with its greatest heroes, the Abrahams, the Isaacs, the Noahs, all of the greatest heroes in the Bible, it is always very clear to say they weren't perfect either.
00:17:08
Speaker
They had their faults. They made their bad choices. There was sin still in their life, even as they tried to pursue God. And the story of Joseph is no different. But what's interesting is that second only to Jesus Christ, Joseph is told his story that he has one of the purest hearts there is. Because if you look at his life, there's no evidence of real pronounced sin.
00:17:32
Speaker
Yes, he was a little bit arrogant for a teenager, but for the most part, his life is indicative of someone who is really truly following after God and following after holiness. So because of his righteousness, this infuriated his brothers towards him. So let that remind you that when our lives become a contrast to the world that's gone immoral around us and your life rebukes the world for their lifestyle, you will be hated because of it.
00:18:00
Speaker
Jesus himself said they will hate you because of me. When you decide to follow Jesus, the world's not going to understand it. They're not going to like it. They are going to stand and pronounce judgment against you. And can I just say to you, if you're not willing to receive that, then you have to question whether you're ready to take up your cross and follow him. That's a hard choice. It's not
00:18:21
Speaker
something we do for popularity, it's not something we do for the world's approval, but living a life that is righteous like Joseph chose to live will constantly bring us face to face in conflict with the world around us. The second thing we see here is this report that he's gave to his father. You see, some say Jacob was a title tell, that he shouldn't have gone and said what he said, but I believe the reports had to be told.
00:18:48
Speaker
because the brothers, if you remember the story, weren't saints at all. They were constantly getting into some kind of trouble. The aforementioned affair that Reuben had with his mother, the crazy, vindictive way that they wiped out an entire town because of what happened to their sister, they were constantly doing things that they shouldn't be doing. Even after this story, there would be stories about how the brothers did not live according to the righteousness of God.
00:19:17
Speaker
The brothers weren't saints. Joseph had to come and tell his father what was going on. That was his role as kind of being an oversight over his brothers. So I think it's an appropriate place for me here just to take a little bit of a detour because one of the things that we have a problem with in many of our churches is the word we call gossip, right?
Communication: When to Speak or Be Silent
00:19:38
Speaker
Do we have a problem with that here in our church? You know why? Because we're human.
00:19:46
Speaker
Human beings like to talk and we like to open our ears for things that we shouldn't. So what I want to do here is I want to give you some guidelines. There's not any hard and fast principles, but some guidelines about how to know when you should talk and when you should keep your mouth shut. Just to kind of help you. Okay. That way I don't have to come sit down and have a conversation with you later about you should have kept your mouth shut. Right.
00:20:11
Speaker
Y'all are looking real uncomfortable with me right now. I mean, gosh, I feel like I'm talking about something that's off limits. Y'all are just like staring at me, nervous. These are just, like I said, some guidelines. Number one, don't tell what you don't know. If you're getting information third and fourth hand, then it's not yours to tell. If you start off a conversation with somebody saying, I heard that, that means you didn't really know, stop the conversation right then and there.
00:20:38
Speaker
If you have factual information that you have experienced firsthand, you've seen firsthand, you know it to be true, then that's a possibility. Doesn't mean you should have to tell it, but it definitely should eliminate the possibility if you don't have firsthand information that you know to be a fact. Secondly, do not tell something unless it is necessary. Do not tell something unless it is necessary. What do I mean by that? If somebody is going to be harmed by your
00:21:05
Speaker
unwillingness to talk about it, or if a crime is going to be or has been committed, then yes, you need to tell them. But you need to understand the difference between a crime and a bad habit. There are two very vast differences between the two. Crime, possible danger, possible breaking of the law. In fact, the law probably would command that you tell what you know. But if it's not a crime, if it's just some bad habit that somebody has, then it's not necessary that you tell that story.
00:21:35
Speaker
speak a word of warning to the offender. This is really, really important. Joseph should have talked to his brothers. Now, there's no guarantee that they would receive that, but what you do by talking to the person who is responsible, the offending party, is two things. Number one, you give them the opportunity to repent and make it right. Or number two, you give them the opportunity to explain what you don't know about the story, which might make sense about why the story happened in the first place.
00:22:03
Speaker
You don't know everything that somebody else is going through, right? You don't know the background behind everything that's going on. You don't know why you saw so-and-so standing on certain corner, or why you saw somebody whispering to so-and-so. You don't know the story. So always go to the source and say, let's talk about what I saw, what I know, what I heard, so that I can be sure. And you can have an opportunity to make this right if there's a problem. Okay? Lastly,
00:22:32
Speaker
Be motivated always by love. Always about love. You see, the problem because we are sinners is we love to talk and we love to hear about people who are having bad situations. I know that strikes you odd, doesn't it? But it's true, isn't it? When bad things happen, what's the first thing we want to do? We want to go tell somebody. Don't believe me? Go look on I Heart Chapel Hill.
00:22:59
Speaker
If we had the ability to trace phone lines right after some bad event happened, we dig for information and then we like to get people, encourage people to come to us to dig information out of us because we want to be the person in the know. And it's the nature of human beings. So what we have to do is we have to look for opportunities to redeem people.
00:23:23
Speaker
opportunities to redeem people, to make them better. So out of love, when we have these conversations, the goal should always be restoration, reconciliation, or redemption. Should be the only reason we ever tell a story like that. Okay? Wow. Okay. So let's get back to why the brothers wanted to kill Joseph. Okay, the first reason I said was this moral and spiritual gap between the brothers. The second reason is their differences.
00:23:53
Speaker
You see, after Rachel died, Rachel was Joseph's mother. After Rachel died, Jacob turned his full affection and attention on Joseph. It was the wrong way to respond to what had happened, but he had very little in common with the other sons, and he actually didn't try to hide that. He made it so blatantly honest that it made the other brothers hate Joseph tremendously. He gave him that coat, and like I said, it's not a
00:24:19
Speaker
matter of whether it was long sleeve or colored or whatever, what's important is that it signified Joseph for a special position in the family. In fact, many scholars say it probably meant that he didn't even have to work in the fields with the sheep, that he more was in a supervisor role, which would explain why he was at home when the brothers were at Shechem and then at Dothan. He had been given some huge responsibility over his older brothers, and that was very unusual for that day and age. And so because of that, the brothers hated him.
00:24:50
Speaker
The giving of the coat in itself probably signified that Jacob, like I said, Joseph had received the rightful inheritance that belonged to Reuben. So while we can't excuse the hate that these brothers had towards Joseph, we probably can understand it a little bit. If we were in that position, we might want to be a little hateful and spiteful going, okay, dad, why aren't you paying attention to me? Here's the key to this. Children pick up your faults as well as your virtues.
00:25:19
Speaker
What you do in your home will be passed from one generation to the next. Your kids will not learn from what you teach them as much as they learn from what you practice in front of them. So do what is good, do what is right, do what is kind, and do what is holy. Don't be surprised when your children start doing what you do. And this is exactly what happened.
00:25:43
Speaker
Jacob had been a part of deception all of his life, been a bad dad. So why in the world would be surprised that his sons practice the art of deception and pulling off the selling of their brother into slavery? Thirdly, the dreams, and these were doozies, right?
Lessons on Humility and Envy
00:26:04
Speaker
I mean, who in their right mind would have such a dream and go tell their brother, hey, by the way, you're going to bow to me someday.
00:26:12
Speaker
Two dreams, but we know they were dreams that came from God because they eventually came true. Spoiler alert, end of the story, they do bow down to Joseph, right? So Joseph's fault was not in the fact that he had his dream, it's in the fact that he told them about the dream. He didn't keep his mouth shut. Lesson practical for you and I right here in this moment is this. Troubles come when we don't keep quiet about our past successes and our past achievements.
00:26:42
Speaker
when we brag about ourselves. There's an old expression that I came across that I think is really, really cool. It says, God put our hands in front of us so we can't pat ourselves on the back. My dad used to tell me as a kid all the time, he said, son, don't waste time bragging on yourself. Let others do it for you. You should always want to grow more, want to be smarter, want to be stronger, want to be faster.
00:27:09
Speaker
Wanna be kinder, wanna be more compassionate. All those things are things you have to work on. My dad used to say to me, if you ever walk into the room and you're the smartest, find another room. If you ever walk into the room and you're not the fastest, find another room. Why? Because if you ever think you're better than everybody else in the room, your life is out of whack and you need to make some changes. You and I are not better than anybody else in this room.
00:27:34
Speaker
I have certain giftings. You have certain giftings. I should not waste my time bragging about the things God has blessed me with because God has given me those things. I did not earn them. You likewise don't have the power to be who you are without the blessings and grace of God. So his dreams created problems for him and his brothers. They didn't like it. So that leads us to the fourth and probably most powerful reason. And that's where I want to spend the last bit of our time, this power of envy.
00:28:04
Speaker
I looked up the definition right before we started the service. Envy is a pronounced feeling of discontent that is brought on by someone else's possessions, achievements, circumstances, or luck. Envy, just by its nature, gives birth to hate. And hate quite often leads to murder. Envy is a waste of time.
00:28:32
Speaker
We spend our time fuming about what we don't have instead of enjoying what we do have. The truth is, if we had more grateful hearts, we would spend less time being envious of others. Who can tell me what the title of this sermon series, this seven-week series is? From Pit to Palace. Can I just tell you something? God very clearly has said to me this morning, before we even got to the first service,
00:28:59
Speaker
There are many people in our congregation who are living in pits because they're too worried about everybody else's palaces. The gospel tells us that salvation is offered to any who receive it. And what that means is that the hand of Jesus literally reaches out to people in their pit and says, I will pull you out if you'll let me. But if you're so focused on everybody else's palace, you won't ever see the hand of Jesus.
00:29:24
Speaker
And so some of you are dwelling in pits today, living in the dumps of your own choosing, because you refuse to see the deliverance that has already been brought to you by Jesus Christ. And you're maybe going, it's not so bad. I don't do it that often. But just like every other sin, envy becomes a problem because it's sneaky the way Satan slides into our lives.
00:29:51
Speaker
And like many of you, I've done that thing where I've gone, well, why can't I get a new truck? Why can't I have a bigger house? Why can't I have nicer clothes? Why can't I dress like so-and-so? Or why can't I have things like so-and-so? And if we were honest, I'm not going to ask you to do it. Most of us could stand and give a testimony of having those same feelings at points in our life. Maybe even right now.
00:30:14
Speaker
But if you wanna know why you can't get out of the pattern of life you're in right now, it's because in your pit, you're more concerned about somebody else's palace. So what I've done is what many of you have done. For years, I've uttered that prayer, God, why can't I win the lottery? Why can't I have a million dollars? And if I'm still in silence long enough before God, what I hear is God laughing, going, I know you too well. Because if you didn't have to depend on me,
00:30:44
Speaker
you wouldn't depend on me at all. If you didn't have to depend on me for your paycheck, if you didn't have to depend on me for your breath, if you didn't have to depend on me to protect your marriage, if you didn't have to depend on me to take care of your kids and grandkids, if you didn't have to depend on me to protect this church, you would think you were all that in a bag of chips and you wouldn't rely on me for anything. That's why I don't buy lottery tickets. He's already told me, you're not going to win anyway, big boy.
00:31:11
Speaker
But that's the reality we face. Look at the story
Parallels Between Joseph and Jesus
00:31:14
Speaker
of Joseph. What happened because of envy? What happened because of envy? Well, nine men threw their brother into a pit. Nine men then went and literally sat down within earshot of him as he screamed for mercy and help and did nothing. An older brother, Reuben, cowardly tried to compromise with those brothers in order to save his own reputation.
00:31:38
Speaker
In cold blood, they decided to make a profit off of their brother by selling him as a slave to Egypt. Then they cruelly dipped his blood into I mean, his coat into animals blood and showed it to his father, not giving one moment's thought about what kind of depression it was in their father into. You see, what I'm trying to say to you is that envy sends us to the depths of evil that are almost inconceivable in the human heart, but they're there.
00:32:07
Speaker
And before you go, oh, pastor, I would never murder anybody. Let me remind you of the message of the rabbi who would come just a few thousand years later, Jesus Christ. If you have thought it in your heart, you have committed the sin already. So if you've ever uttered the words, why can't I have what he has? You're on a very dangerous ground.
00:32:34
Speaker
And if you've ever looked at what somebody else had and thought to yourself, how can I manipulate this situation so that I can have what they have you have entered into dark territory? And some of you today are living in a pit. A pit of your own making. The good news is there is a cure for all this. The cure for envy comes 2,000 years later.
00:33:03
Speaker
Joseph the person prefigures the person of Jesus Christ. Think about it. A pure son is sent by his father to seek out his lost brothers. While Joseph would wear the coat of many colors, Jesus would wear the coat of humanity. His brothers would strip him down, they would tear his flesh, they would nail him to a tree, and they would ignore his cries for help as he suffered.
00:33:29
Speaker
But from that horrible, awful, terrible scene comes our only hope. There are two messages that stand to us across the centuries from the cross of Jesus Christ. And those two messages offer us the hope that we have. First of all, there is the forgiveness of Jesus Christ that's offered by the cross. You see, the cure for our sin is at the foot of the cross.
00:33:58
Speaker
A few weeks ago, I had an incredible phone call. My Sunday school teacher from high school called me and she called me out of the blue and I recognized the phone number on my cell phone. I picked it up and she said, Ridley, this is Miss Gloria. I said, hey, Miss Gloria, I said, how are you doing? She said,
00:34:19
Speaker
And we called up for just a few minutes and she said, I don't know if you know this, but I retired from what I was doing and am now writing articles for the Miller County Liberal. My first thought was I didn't even know the Miller County Liberal still existed. We only had 37 readers like 20 years ago and now it's, but she's still writing articles for this newspaper. She said, you remember when you preached your first sermon at our church 30 something years ago? I said, yeah, vaguely.
00:34:49
Speaker
She said, there was a statement you made in that sermon and I wanted to get your permission to use it in the article I'm writing. I said, Holy cow. You remember a statement I made 30 something years ago? She laughed. She said, Oh yeah. She said, I wrote it right here in my journal. And she said, I want to make sure I got it right. And I wanted to make sure I had your permission to read it. I mean, to write it in the article. I said, sure, Ms. Gloria, I'd be happy to. This is the statement.
00:35:17
Speaker
How do you avoid a raging fire? You stand on the ground where the fire has already burned. How do you avoid a raging fire? You stand on the ground where the fire has already burned. You see, there's a really bad teaching going around in the Christian churches, that is, if you just say a prayer, Jesus will forgive you of your sins, and that's all how it works. But the problem is, that's not what the Bible tells us.
00:35:44
Speaker
The Bible tells us the reason we were forgiven for our sins is because there was a price that had to be paid for them. Jesus took the wrath of God on himself so that you and I could receive that forgiveness. The wrath of God had to be poured out on sin. All sin has to be punished. And the fire, the raging fire of God's fury burned at the cross at its greatest intensity. Jesus took what you and I deserve.
00:36:14
Speaker
And because of that, not just envy, but every sin we've ever committed has the ability to be removed and forgiven because the price has already been paid. Where do you go to escape a raging fire? You go to the place it has already burned. There's a cure, and it's because of the love of Christ Jesus that we have it. The second thing, the second message that comes to us from the cross is this.
Using Love to Overcome Envy
00:36:45
Speaker
the practice of love for each other. What do I mean by that? You see, after we're saved, it's still easy to fall prey to envy, right? We still make mistakes. We still choose to sin. We still choose our own path. We avoid this in only one way, and that is by letting Jesus Christ love others through us. We like to talk about 1 Corinthians 13, this passage on love and how important it is.
00:37:11
Speaker
How love is the greatest of all things, but the truth is love is not just a noun. It's a verb and it's a verb that must be practiced. If you're going to say that you love people, then it's something you have to do. You have to act out love towards other people. So first we pray for them, but then we seek genuine intentional opportunities to have conversations with them.
00:37:34
Speaker
Scientists tell us that fever from the human body kills germs because they can't live above a certain temperature. So fever in our body is good because it kills those germs. And I would say to you that love kills envy. The more love you have, the less room you have for envy. The more gratefulness you have in your heart for what you've already been blessed with, the less room you have for envy. A heart that's filled with God's love can't possibly envy what others have.
00:38:05
Speaker
I read the story a couple weeks ago as I was finishing up preparation for this sermon. I want to tell you about it. There's a few names you may not recognize, but there's a guy by the name of F.B. Meyer who was a fantastic preacher in England years ago back in the 1800s. F.B. Meyer was well known, well respected all over the town of London where his church was, but he was invited to come to America to preach at the invitation of a guy by the name of D.L. Moody. Some of you may recognize that name.
00:38:31
Speaker
When he came and he preached at Moody's Church, he received a tremendous response. He was very excited about that. But the next year, another guy was invited to preach at DL Moody's Church, and it was a guy by the name of G. Campbell Morgan, another very well-known, very prominent evangelist. Morgan received a greater response from his preaching than Meyer did from his. And Meyer in his journal admits and confesses that immediately it caused him to envy G. Campbell Morgan.
00:39:00
Speaker
He said, the only way that I can possibly conquer my feeling is to pray for him daily. So that's what he set out to do. He began to pray for G. Campbell Morgan. Well, about a year later, G. Campbell Morgan moved his church to London, England, literally around the corner from where F.B. Meyer was a pastor. And as can be expected, there were thousands who came to hear him preach. His church was crowded to the edge of the room every single Sunday as he would bring God's word
00:39:31
Speaker
Meyer was fearful that Morgan would take his entire congregation from him, so he did the only thing he knew to do. He prayed, Lord, will you fill Morgan's church so full that it can't hold anymore and send me the leftovers?
Seeking Help to Overcome Struggles
00:39:47
Speaker
Let me ask you something. Who is it that you envy or hate this morning? When I mentioned the word envy, probably somebody or something came to your mind.
00:40:01
Speaker
Who is it that you envy or hate this morning? Because the truth is you live in a prison that they control. You're allowing them to keep you in that pit. And the only answer is to love the one you envy. To turn a heart of gratitude towards God and say, God, I need you in this moment to help me out. A few weeks ago in our congregation, we had a young man who was sitting
00:40:31
Speaker
He was telling us the story a few weeks later. He said, in the middle of the service, even before we got to the sermon, I felt God telling me that I needed to stand up and scream at the top of my lungs. I am an addict. I cannot help myself. I need you to help me. He chose not to that day. And sadly, he went through a lot of bad experiences in the weeks to follow.
00:40:58
Speaker
because of his unwillingness to listen to what God told him to do. Thankfully, he's at a place where he's getting help now. He's got others surrounding him. He finally did reach out. But I can't help but believe right here in this room this morning, just as we had at the eight o'clock service, that there are people in this room right now who are being nudged by God to get up and profess their need for him. To get up and say, God, I am living in a pit
00:41:27
Speaker
and I need your hand to get me out. That's the gospel, guys. There's no secret code, no secret formula. There's no rituals you have to participate in. All you simply have to do is acknowledge that He is the one you need. But sadly, just like many other Sundays, many of you will get up and walk out of here and never change a thing.
00:41:54
Speaker
And so you'll go back to the same routines. You'll go back to the same ritual. You'll go back to the same frustration and discouragement and depression. You'll go back to the same week marriage. You'll go back to the same boring job. You'll go back to the same, same, same. And that is the very definition of insanity. And the only way to step out of that is to step to the foot of the cross where the fire has already burned. Will you pray with me?
00:42:32
Speaker
Father, our only hope is really to acknowledge you. And sadly, for many of us, it's the one thing we won't do. For some of us, it's fear. For some of us, it's shame. Maybe for some of us, it's doubt. But for all of us, what we hear inside our heart every single day
00:43:04
Speaker
are two voices. One is the voice of God saying, I am here because I love you. I am here because I want to pull you out of what you're in. The other voice is the voice of an enemy who tries to tell us lies. Don't you dare listen to him. He can't possibly help you. You're so far gone, he couldn't possibly love you like you are.
00:43:36
Speaker
This morning the decision we have, every single one of us in this room, is to decide which voice we'll listen to. Will we listen to the deceiver? Will he continue to buy into his lies as he tries to redirect our life in the wrong direction, literally straight to the gates of hell itself?
00:44:03
Speaker
But we listen to the one who extends his nail scarred hand down and says, I will pull you out, child, if you'll trust me. I will pull you out if you will just lean into me. I will pull you out if you will just humble yourself and acknowledge that I am what you need. Give us courage to listen to you today, Father.
00:44:56
Speaker
In Jesus' name I pray.