Philippians 1, 9, and 1 Corinthians 13 versus 1 through 4. First from Philippians, again, it's Paul's prayer for this church. This is what he says. It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. 1 Corinthians 13. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clinging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Father in heaven, we would come to you now in the name of Jesus, asking that you would be with us during this time of your preached word. That you would move in such a way that would cause us to see right here, right, think, right, feel right, that we might walk away even at the end of this hour different. Recognizing something more of your beauty, something more of our sin and our deep need for a Savior, convinced of this that you are the way, that you are the truth, that you are the life. Jesus, we ask this in your name. Amen. Well, again, we would like to say Happy Mother's Day. We are so thankful to you. I certainly want to say Happy Mother's Day to my mom. She is not here, but she listens each week to my sermons on line, which is fun. It also means I have to be very careful by what I say, specifically in terms of stories as it relates to our family. Instead of sharing one of my own, I want to read from Irma Bomback, something that Dr. Denison sent out on his weekly devotions last week. This is what he wrote. Irma Bomback was one of the funniest and wisest writers of her day. Here's how she describes Mother's Day, breakfast in her home. Quote, a mixer whirs out of control. Then stops abruptly as the voice cries out. I'm telling a dog barks, and another voice says, get his paws out of there. Mom has to eat that. Minutes pass, and finally, dad wears the chili sauce. Then she hears, don't you dare bleed on Mom's breakfast. The rest is a blur of banging doors, running water, rapid footsteps, and a high pitched. You started the fire. You put it out. And then breakfast arrives. Later in the day, after you've decided it was easier to move to a new house than clean the kitchen, you return to your bed where, if you're wise, you'll reflect on this day for the first time your children have given instead of received. They have offered up to you the sincerest form of flattery trying to emulate what you do for them. Mom's, we are really, and truly grateful for you. The love that you give, and seek to give, it's not perfect. But if you know Christ, you know what He seeks, or what He calls you to seek, it's His type of love. It's this love that Paul describes here in this morning. We're looking at one word, this word envy. Envy is a powerful, powerful sin. It's one in which we don't hear confessed very often. But one in which I believe by the end of our time together this morning, you will be thinking differently about. You will be wondering, how is it so consuming you? And what is it that must be done? I want to begin by reading from a story, a story that's very well known. However, I'm reading from an edition that was published in 1898. Listen as I read. A year passed away and the king took another wife. She was very beautiful, but so proud and hotty that she could not bear to be surpassed in beauty by anyone. She possessed a wonderful mirror, which could answer her when she stood before it and said, Mirror mirror up on the wall. Who is the fairest of all? The mirror answered, thou oak queen, aren't the fairest of all. And the queen was contented because she knew the mirror could speak nothing but the truth. But as time passed on, little snow white grew more and more beautiful. Until when she was seven years old, she was as lovely as the bright day, and still more lovely than the queen herself. So when the lady one day asked her mirror, mirror mirror up on the wall, who was the fairest of all? It answered, oh lady queen, though fair ye be, snow white is fairer far to see. The queen was horrified. And from that moment, envy and pride grew in her like rank weeds. Invy is ugly. Invy, according to one writer named Henry Praili, or Phaili says this, of the seven deadly sins, if we confess each day how often we had been invious, we would be on our knees longer than for any other of the sins. If you hear that immediately, you think, no, I think it's probably pride, but pride is what gives birth to envy. What is envy? I'm going to read to you four definitions. I want you to listen carefully, and then I'm going to contrast envy and jealousy. In some of your Bibles, you may have the word jealousy, but there is a better word, and it truly is the word envy. If you want to keep jealousy, it's fine, but you have to understand it's an extreme jealousy. A jealousy that goes beyond what you normally think of as jealousy. So listen to these definitions. The first comes from Jonathan Edwards in his incredible book Charity and its Fruit. Here's how he describes envy. Envy is a spirit of dissatisfaction and or opposition, a spirit of dissatisfaction and or opposition to the prosperity and happiness of other people. Another definition? Those who commit the sin of envy resent that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking and wish the other person to be deprived of it. The quietness of this, envy is sorrow for another's good. Envy is sorrow for another's good. Another definition? People driven by envy can't stand. Someone else enjoying a benefit, they are not also able to enjoy. That's envy. But what's the difference between jealousy and envy? Listen carefully. Jealousy is craving after something that belongs to someone else. Envy goes a step further. Envy is wanting to prevent others from enjoying something that you can't have. Let me give you an example, and there are many. Recently, I visited Chattanooga. And there, I was a part of Tim Tinley's installation service last Sunday. That's why I wasn't here. Tim and I, as you know, are very, very close. One of the first things that Tim did when he found out he was going to be going to Chattanooga, received that call, was he sent me a picture of his new home. And he did it because he wanted to provoke something in me. It is big. It is incredible. It is huge and it's white and beautiful. It backs up to 46 acres that the man across all those acres owns. So it's as if Tim has his own. He doesn't even have to leave his yard to go hunting. I arrived and I saw Tim's house. Mike is the only child they have living there now. How fun for her to pick one of the six bedrooms that she could live in. I have five children now. We live in a three bedroom house. Tim's closet is bigger than most of those bedrooms. And the house itself is about $400,000 less than what our house will sell for. I'm jealous. But I'm not envious. I don't think. Here's the difference. Jealousy is saying I wish I had a house like that. With that spectacular beauty and that incredible space. But envy is saying this. I wish that house would burn down. I wish they couldn't have that house. I wish that they would go so far into debt that somehow it would be corrupt in others' minds. And they couldn't afford it and it would go away. That's envy. But I would never probably commit arson just to see my brother suffer. But you know what I might do? I might set a spark on fire another way. Saying something like this. Can you believe a godly man and a pastor would buy a house like that? Can you believe he would choose to live somewhere like that? You see that's envy. And that voice, that word can set a spark on fire. We're suddenly through slander and gossip. I create something that's very unloving. Do you see the difference? And it can be in so many things. Jealousy is looking at something and saying I wish I had that gift. But I'm glad he has it. I wish I had this possession or this honor. Or when I look at the choir and I say I wish I had their voices. That's jealousy. If I look at the choir and say I'm envious, I wish you all had laryngitis every day. That would be envy. And envy is wicked. It's awful. It's ugly. It's so ugly that what was written in the Snow White story, I couldn't read. Because there's a lot of ones here. It's too graphic. But what it essentially says is this. The queen sends her huntsman. And he asks that he returns. He asks that he returns with the heart. Envy is vicious. It's wicked. It's nasty. And something unique to envy, unlike the other seven deadly sins, is that there's no benefit. Initially with lust and greed and slothfulness and gluttony, there's some pleasure that you might feel, but envy. It's just never satisfied. There is no privilege or blessedness. I want to look at two examples in scripture of envy. If you have your Bible, turn to Genesis 3. If you don't, use the blue pew Bible in front of you. I'm going to look at Genesis 3, and then we're going to turn to another Old Testament narrative to see the incredible nature of envy. First, it begins in Genesis 4. Adam and Eve's first born, Cain and Abel. Beginning in the second part of verse 2, you'll see envy. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain, a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. Abel also brought of the first born of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So listen to what happens. So Cain was very angry. You see, jealousy doesn't necessarily mean anger, but envy is. Envy produces that. And so you see this envy in Cain. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. I think that description is so powerful. That's what envy does. It causes your face to fall, to long, because there's something you're looking at that you want. And you don't want the other person to have it. Verse 8, the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, Cain is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Cain spoke to Abel's brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Cain is real, it's destructive. And here it manifests itself in the sin of envy. Take your Bible and turn to the book of Esther, chapter 5. Here we have the story of Queen Esther and Haman and Mordecai. This is an incredible picture of envy. The context of the story is that this man Mordecai is not paying appropriate homage and honor to Haman. So Haman is distraught. He's just been invited along with the Queen by the Queen to this banquet. And in verse 9, listen for envy. Chapter 5, verse 9. And Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart. He's joyful and glad of heart because he's just been invited to this banquet. But when Haman saw Mordecai and the King's gate that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai. Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home and he sent and brought his friends and his wife Zeresh. Now listen to what he says. I want you to picture this. He's gathered his wife and some close friends. And now listen to what he says to him. Listen to the way he speaks to them. And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches. This is amazing. He's bringing people in so he can essentially show them all he has. He shows them the splendor of his riches, the numbers of his sons, all the promotions which the King had honored him. And now he had advanced him above the officials and the servants of the King. Then Haman said, even Queen Esther, let no one but me come with the King to the feast she prepared. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the King. Incredible privilege, incredible riches, incredible sons, so much that others would envy, right? But verse 13, yet all this, everything I've just said, all that I've spoken, all that I've accounted, all this has worked nothing to me so long as I see Mordecai the Jews sitting at the King's gate. And his wife, Zarech, and all his friends said to him, let a gallows, 50 qubits, high be made. And in the morning, tell the King to have Mordecai hanged upon it. Then go joyfully with the King to the feast. And this idea pleased Haman. And he had the gallows made. Invy kills. It is born in a heart that says I'm not content. I want more. And until Mordecai honors me and bows down to me, all that I have doesn't matter. This is what I want. And so he goes and the gallows are built. And if you read the rest of the story, perhaps later today or tomorrow, you'll realize that Invy does kill. But in this case, it's Haman, the one who dies. Where is Invy? Where is Invy in our lives? I promise it's far more present and far deeper than you might realize. Where is it in our church? The reason we're talking about love is because Paul prayed in his first petition for the Church of Philippi, may your love abound more and more in knowledge and all discernment. That means that for a body to be a loving body, Invy cannot be present. But it is. It is so deeply present in our lives that I agree with Rayleigh that this sin would drop us to our knees so often, if we really knew how present it was. What is it that we envy? I'm going to go through a very quick list, just think. Just think as I say these things. We envy possessions. We envy the lot that other people have been given. Their happiness, their health, their status. We envy the idea that some just look like they got it all together. And we deceptively believe that they do. We envy careers, experiences, gifts, spiritual life, beauty. And in the church, we can envy so much. We can envy the recognition that other people get. The connection that other people have, some seem to be the insiders, some are the outsiders. We envy the spiritual gifts that other people have, whether it's the gift of serventhood or preaching or evangelism. We envy experiences that other people have. How often do I hear people say, I don't really have that good a testimony. Almost sometimes is that there's an envy for a testimony that was a little more powerful. Had a little more sin in it, so to speak. That's the wrong way of thinking. Envy can so swell in a church body that when you show up on Sunday morning, instead of your eyes being directed up to the one true Lord, you're thinking about the people around you. Even this morning perhaps, envying how some children seem to be obedient, but not yours. Enveying the way in which another woman looks versus the way you think you look. Our envying is a man, another man's career, or his possessions, or how he's weathered this economic storm. He doesn't seem to be as effective as I have been. And jealousy can be present, but it can quickly give birth to something else. And that is where you wish for harm. Are you wish for something to be taken away so that the other person, though they may be a believer in Christ, won't have the same experience. I have really wrestled this week of whether or not to tell you what I'm going to tell you. But I don't know a better way to explain how envy can consume men and women in the church. For me, I simply went through the exercise of asking a few questions. I want you to write these questions down. Because in doing so, you're going to discover where envy is in your life. I simply ask this question a week ago tomorrow. Who is it that I envy most? Oh, that's painful, but you need to ask it. Who is it that I envy most? Here's my list. Matt Chandler, Todd Wagner, Tim Keller, John Piper, Skip Ryan, Tim Tinsley. I can go on, label a few more, Jim Dennison. What is it that I envy about them? Their mind, their gifts, their discipline, their privileges? But in doing so, I didn't use the word jealous. Why? Because as the Lord reveals in your heart the darkness how truly yuck, yucky it can be, like the queen's heart and snow white, you begin to realize that there may be a part of you that wishes those men in my life at least have so many gifts may stumble, may fall. I might delight just a little or a lot if they didn't have all these blessings that they have. Isn't that sick? You're just okay to say yes. It is. And you're going to see sick stuff in your life too this week. It's sick. It's sick that I could go, you know. I really wish Watermark wouldn't grow the way it's growing. I really wish Tim Keller wouldn't continue to be the favorite preacher even in this congregation. World magazine recently did an article on Tim Keller. I was looking at it. And there's jealousy. I hope not really envy, probably there is. But I started thinking about all the other people would be reading this. And if they read the article they wouldn't be jealous or envies just of its preaching but also of his marriage. He also says that when asked the question what essentially were you safe from? He said all my children loved me and all my children are walking with the Lord. So any minister whose kids aren't doing that could be envious of that. He's so blessed. That's envy. Envy when you wish that something destructive could happen to one who's being so used by the Lord and brothers and sisters it's in you. And it's in me and I hate it. Thank God I hate it. I do though, but it's really there. My fear in telling you that was that you would think less of me. That's where envy starts. In the I said earlier it's really never satisfied. In fact the only way it appears to be satisfied is when the one who is envying is the one who's finally envied. Isn't that wicked? It's only appearance of satisfaction is when the one who is envious finally is the one who's envied. Do you see that incredible pride? So my friends this week I want you to ask the question, who are you envious of? What are you envious of? And what the Lord will expose to you is the greatest idols of your life. It's powerful. And it's going to show you something that you really do need Jesus. I want to give you an illustration to help you think through it. It teaches us the way in which we're to battle envy. At the root of envy is a lack of contentment. Take your Bible and turn to Psalm 16. At the root of envy is a lack of contentment. Psalm 16 so beautifully written by David describes the contentment that he fills in the Lord. I'm only going to read a couple of verses beginning in verse five. Psalm 16. David writes, the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. envy is born when we are not content with the lines that the Lord has drawn for us. The lines and boundaries have been put up for us to live. We're looking outside what other people have. The lines that the Lord has drawn for them. And we want those lines. And so we begin to envy what they have. And in doing so, no way love can exist. And so David teaches us that we must learn to be content and the lines that the Lord has given us. Even this morning, it can be a painful Sunday on Mother's Day. Some of you are having pain because you're not yet a mother and may never be able to be a mother. And so it's hard. Others of you are mourning the loss of your mother, perhaps. This is the first Mother's Day without your mom. And it's hard and it hurts. Others of you are truly mourning that your children aren't walking as you wish. Maybe one son or one daughter is not even going to come home or call or send a card. And so there can be envy in your life when you see other children, other families responding a certain way. Envy is powerful. But the Word of God teaches us that His will is good. It's pleasing. It's perfect. But when the lines are drawn for us a certain way, so often we want to live outside. And we begin to look. And envy truly is a sin of the eyes. In fact, in Dante's purgatory, the punishment for envy is that the eyes are soed up for eternity. I hope it's a happy Mother's Day call. I love you guys. She said, she's sorry. Don't be sorry. Who has not done that? It just happened she had to go in the front row. So I had to draw attention. Okay, here's the illustration. Growing up as a boy, I love to play King of the Hill. As a boy I went to church until I was seven or eight years old. And at seven or eight years old my parents decided to leave the church and they never returned. Just before we left the church, the church had gone through a building campaign where they were building a gymnasium and a wing for the children. It's fun and exciting as it was to think that we were someday going to have a gym. There was a mound of dirt that had been built for all the children to, well, not really play on, but we were going to play on it. So every Wednesday night after children's ministry time, all the boys and girls, even the girls would go out and play King of the Hill. Now you know the way the game works. The goal was to be on top. And once you're on top, you're to kick, push, and shove people down. And on your way up, you're seeking to do the same thing. Feet go in the face. Dirt clods may be thrown from the top as others are trying to ascend. You want to be King. Well it didn't take me very long to realize that why the children were on the outside of the church playing King of the Hill. The adults were on the inside playing King of the Hill. Themselves clawing, wagering, trying to get on top, trying to be powerful, trying to be known, trying to be on the inside, trying to share influence or shape influence. Brothers and sisters, we want to be King. Brothers and sisters, there's only one King. And it's Jesus. Jesus is the King. He's the King of this church. He's the King of this world. His kingdom come. He will return as King. And every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is King. But we, with a strong will, and a deep seated in the want to be King. We want to be on top. We indeed want to be in need. So how does envy stop? And envy stops by changing the position of your eyes. Stop looking at a lot of other people and the lines that have been drawn for them. And instead look at the one who's on top of that hill. It's Jesus. And remember, Jesus was on top of the hill. He was on top of a hill called Galgotha. And there, the one deserving of all praise and honor and esteem died for you and me. Creatures who would be so full of envy that we would seek the praise that he and he alone deserves. He's King. He's King. If you want envy to be removed from your life, if we as a body want a love present here, unlike any you've ever seen, then it won't happen simply because you say, I'm not going to envy anymore. Envy's too deep. I promise. It's too wicked and sick. I promise. But it changes when you change what you're looking at. And here's what happens. If you will stop looking at those around you and keep looking at Jesus, you will stop wanting to be King. And when you see that Christ and Christ alone is King and that he is fairest of all, that he is fairest of all, that he is fairest of all, that he is so beautiful. Something happens to you. You no longer want your feet to be pushed in the face of others, knocking them off the hill. You want to go down and get up underneath them and push them up that they might see what you see. He's beautiful. Did you see him? Look a little closer and you push. And then when they see the beauty that you've seen, they grab you and they get underneath you. And they say, Tee, do you see him? Do you see what he looks like? Stephen, do you see him? Do you see what he looks like? And the body begins to love in such a way that we see Christ as we've never seen him before. Last week, when I preached Tim's installation, I said that's what I'm going to miss most. Is because Tim and I, by God's grace, for five years, did that for one another. There were times when we easily could have invaded one another and there were times when we confessed when we did. But by and large, because of God's grace, that brother in my life and I and his went underneath and said, Did you see him every Monday afternoon? That is how we get rid of envy. It's by looking at the king who is fairest of all. It's not simply by saying, and I'm not going to envy anymore. Oh, it's deeper than that. Look at Jesus. Look at Jesus. Keep your eyes on the king. Let's pray. Father in heaven, you can do a work that's beyond anything we could imagine. You could do a work that's so great in causing us to love you, that love for one another becomes so natural. Lord, we need your grace. We need your power, Holy Spirit. We need your revelation to take our eyes off of ourself and see the beauty and glory of the risen king. One who is fairest of all. Jesus, thank you. We love you. And your name we pray. Amen.