Jealousy

Good morning and a very Happy Sabbath to each and every one of you who are joining us this morning from across the country, around the world, whether you're listening on the radio, watching live on our website at saccentral.org, or on the various television networks, through dvd, however you are joining us, we give you a special warm Sabbath welcome. We're so glad that you're tuning in and you're going to sing with us like you do every single week. Those of you who have sent in two requests this morning that we're going to sing, there's actually a lot of people. So these are two favorite songs. The first one, pull out your hymnals at home, join us, number 50, Abide with me.

This is from carol, amielka, monica and rowena in australia, bryan, veronica, jasmine and angel in bahamas, pedro in barbados, bean, samu, patrick and cherry in Canada, mary in ecuador, cabello in florida, tiffany in grenada, goldamere in kenya, Michael in Minnesota, celina, sandra, chief, c.j., Craig, jonathan and sefera in netherlands, angela in New York, leo in new zealand, zenada in the Philippines, hermaneve in saudi arabia, queenie in south africa, bobo in Texas, gideon in trinidad and tobago, ebizar in Utah, sharon in Washington, sam in Wyoming and mabuto in zimbabwe. This is a favorite, number 50, 1st, 2nd and 4th stanza, "abide with me." [Music] My favorite stanza of this entire song, the words, "where is death's sting? Where grave thy victory? I triumph still if thou abide with me." Those of you who have lost loved ones, you know how poignant these words are. It just gives you that hope that death is just a temporary thing. If we love the Lord, it's not forever. If you have a favorite song that you would like to sing with us on an upcoming Sabbath, it is very, very simple.

You go to our website at saccentral.org, and click on the "contact us" link. And you can send in your favorite hymn requests, and we will sing that for you on an upcoming Sabbath. Our next song, number 100. We did 50 and now we're doing 100, "great is thy faithfulness." This is from dean in-- harley, trudy, kenya and felicia and vanessa in australia, stewart in the bahamas, marco in brazil, wildron in California, joanne in cayman islands, rudy in czech republic, brad and camy in florida, bob, Paula in Idaho, tom in Iowa, naomi, June in italy, jan marie in jamaica, vitali in kazakhstan--i think is one of our first requests from kazakhstan, louiva in Maine, bob, herb, debbie in New York, madison, jamie, jenny, sandy, vern, melvin and b.j. In North Carolina, Christy in Oklahoma, beyorgan and leona in Oregon, diane in Pennsylvania, andy, carmen in south africa, nathaniel, naomi, Isaac, edgar, sharon and steph in the united kingdom and troby in Washington.

First, second and third stanza, 100, "great is thy faithfulness." [Music] Father in Heaven, you are faithful. You are so very, very faithful to each and every one of us. We don't deserve your faithfulness. We don't deserve your love. But you are our loving Heavenly Father.

And even though we are wicked little children sometimes, you never stop loving us with that everlasting love. And we thank you so much for that this morning, 'cause we each need it. Father, please be with us as we open up Your Word and study together. Just send your spirit to fill this place and our hearts. And of course, be with our extended Sabbath school family that are joining us, may they also sense your presence as we open up Your Word together.

In Jesus Name, amen. At this time our lesson study is going to be brought to us by our senior pastor, Pastor Doug Batchelor. Thank you to our musicians, song leaders. Morning, friends! Special good morning to those who may be visiting here at Sacramento central today. We're glad you're here.

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org, saccentral.org. Hopefully that'll be appearing up on the screen. And you can talk to one of our pastoral staff. We have a full-time internet pastor here that counsels with people and we try and keep you connected to the body. Also we have a free offer, goes along with our lesson today.

It's dealing with the subject, "riches of his grace," "riches of his grace." And we'll send you a free copy if you don't have that book. Dial the number: 866-788-3966. We'll send that to you. And that's 1-866-study-more, make it easier for you to remember that. In our lesson now dealing with the subject of "the Bible and human emotions.

" It's called "Jesus wept." And today we're dealing with lesson 10, "jealousy." This should prove to be interesting and maybe even convicting. I was a little convicted. We all would like to think we're immune of the wrong kind of jealousy. And I mention that because there is a right and a wrong kind of jealousy. You know the word "jealousy" is mentioned in the Ten Commandments.

God says, "I am a jealous God." And so there is a certain kind of an appropriate jealousy. We're talking about the emotions that God has. And some emotions that we feel are actually normal because we are made in the image of God, and we shouldn't necessarily be ashamed of some of those things that we may resonate with. There's an appropriate kind of jealousy and an inappropriate kind. Hopefully we'll have time to explain the difference.

We have a memory verse in our lesson today. And the memory verse is from Proverbs 27:4, Proverbs 27:4. And I hope you'll be saying it with me. I pasted it in from the new king James version. You ready? It's one verse.

"Wrath is cruel and anger a torrent, but who is able to stand before jealousy?" First murderer in the Bible, who was it? Cain killed his brother. Why? Because his brother's sacrifice, abel's sacrifice, was accepted by God. Just to give you the picture, God said that for forgiveness of sin, they needed to bring a sacrifice. And there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. Well, cain tilled the ground.

He was a horticulturist. And abel kept sheep. And cain said, "well, that might be appropriate for you, but I've got a better idea. Shedding blood is kind of messy and the blood of my vegetables, that's what I'll offer to God." V8 juice; I don't know what it was. And he said, "I don't want to do it that way.

" And how are you going to ever sell a religion like that to the masses that will soon come. He said we need to have something we can Market a little better." And so he brought of the fruit of the ground. I don't know what he brought but he brought something that he grew, a result of his works. Get that? Abel obeyed God. He took a fatling of the flock, sacrificed it, presented the sacrifice; there was shedding of blood.

They both placed it on their respective altars. They both claimed to worship the same God. Fire came down from heaven, burnt up the sacrifice of abel. Nothing but fruit flies came to cain. Cain looked and saw that abel was accepted and he was not.

And he was jealous that his brother was received and he was not. Now later in our study today, we're going to talk about Joseph and his brothers. Weren't they jealous because of the favor that Jacob showed Joseph? So sometimes people are jealous about attention that someone else gets that they don't get. So he killed his brother ultimately. Jealousy, it's a very powerful emotion.

Let's start with where sin came from. Isaiah 14:12, this is a very relevant study because sin entered our world through the vehicle of jealousy. Isaiah 14:12, talking about the devil, the root of evil. "How you are fallen from heaven, o lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.'" Alright, right away he's making a comparison with someone else. God The Father or God The Son, who did he want--who's position did lucifer specifically want to take? God The Father or God The Son? God The Son.

He was especially jealous of the attention that Jesus received and the relationship that Jesus had with The Father, same reason the brothers of Joseph resented Joseph. It's not that they wanted to kill their father. They didn't like the attention The Father--the preferential treatment that Joseph got. Lucifer saw that Jesus was in the counsels of The Father. He was able to create as The Father.

He was as eternal as The Father. And he thought, "I want that. I want that power." He was beautiful, but Christ was more glorified. He said, "i--" you know, people don't mind when they're good looking, but if they see someone more good looking, they resent it. If they are not--you know one of my favorite characters of history was teddy roosevelt, great, brilliant guy, very talented, very ambitious.

And his daughter described him that way. He said, "daddy always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral and the bride at every wedding." "I want to be worshipped. I want to be the winner. I want to be the center of attention." Where does that come from? Well, it comes from the devil, unless you're married. Now if you're married and you enter into a covenant with somebody, is it appropriate for a wife to want her husband's intimate attention? I mean could that be why God said, "I'm a jealous God; I'm not going to tolerate you're worshipping other Gods?" He's in a covenant with his people.

I heard about a divorce back on the east coast. Man and woman divorced and she took her husband's flute when she left. And you might wonder why. She left her clothes in the closet, and she left a lot of the valuables in the house. He was a professional musician, flute player.

And his most precious possession was his flute. He had a silver flute with gold mouthpiece and gold footings. And he played and spent so much time practicing and playing the flute and polishing his flute. And he gave his wife no attention, so she finally said, "enough is enough." She left and what did she take? The thing that she was the most jealous of, took the flute, because she says, "you give all your intimate attention to the flute and not to me." So she was jealous. So there's that right kind of jealousy.

But lucifer, he wanted to be God. He was jealous that he didn't get worshipped. Well it wasn't his. He didn't have a right to it. That's what makes it wrong.

And he said, "I'll exalt my throne above the stars of God. I'll sit on the mount in the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high." You know reason that the devil especially attacked the human race? What are we studying? What's the word? Jealousy. Why? Humans are made lower than angels.

Because angels cannot procreate in their own image. And God made man, made in his own image the ability to procreate in his own image. And the devil said, "I can't even do that." And he gave man dominion over the planet as God has dominion over the universe. And lucifer resented it. And so he was jealous and he wanted to bring down these creatures that God loved so much.

So jealousy is a very powerful emotion. James 3:16-17, matter of fact, somebody look up-- where are the microphones? Let's just find out. James has one here. And who has another? Microphone's over here. Alright, somebody please look up for me 1 Corinthians 3:3.

And I'll get some of our class here to help. Hold up your hand if you've got that verse. I think we gave--right here. Alright, let's bring a microphone over. We're looking for 1 Corinthians 3:3.

And while they're getting that set up, I'm going to read for you James 3:16-17. "For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, then gentle," notice, "willing to yield." You know sometimes people are jealous, they cling to their position. "Willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." Alright, read for us 1 Corinthians 3:3. "For you are still carnal.

For where there are envy, strife, and division among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?" You know, one of the signs of spiritual growth is when someone else prospers and you rejoice for them. Something that is really devilish we all have in our natures is you see somebody around you, some blessing falls upon them, and your first reaction is, "why wasn't it me?" Or you kind of think, "well," you know. Or you covet it. You see it in your children, right? Try this someday. Take 10, 7-year-olds to baskin robbins.

Give them all one scoop of ice cream. And then you give the last one three scoops of whatever they want. They will all be lapping at their ice cream cones contentedly until they see that one of them got three scoops. Am I right? They're asking--nothing wrong with--their lines are fine and all of the sudden they'll say, "why did he get--" or get a line of 10, 13-year-olds, and say, "thanks so much for helping me in my yard today. And I know you were volunteering your service, but I just want to give you a little something.

And here's a dollar for you and a dollar for you and a dollar for you and a dollar for you and a dollar for you and five for you. What's going to happen? They're all fine with their dollar. They weren't expecting anything until you gave five to the last one. Am I right. So we have this tendency to compare ourselves among ourselves and by ourselves and kind of claw, "I want the best.

" We want the attention. We thought our car was fine until the jones next door get a new car. And something in our natures. Galatians 5:19, maybe before I read this I'll set up someone else. Genesis 37:4, who has that? Back here.

Let's get a microphone to you, Genesis 37:4, get you ready. In the meantime I'm going to read Galatians 5:19. "Now the works of the flesh are--" these are the opposite of the fruits of the Spirit. These are the works of the flesh. "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions," notice, "jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I told you before, as I've told you in time past, that they that do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

" So is this wrong kind of jealousy something that must be overcome? How can you do that when it seems like it's sort of engrained in the carnal side of our natures? I'm giving you the answer really early in the lesson. You have to pray for the Holy Spirit. And what I've found works for me is I really pray that God's Spirit will be in me. And if these carnal selfish tendencies crop up in my thinking during the day, I ask the Holy Spirit to make me aware of it. Do you know the Holy Spirit won't just take it away? What the Holy Spirit does is he shows you when it happens, and then you pray for help and the right attitude.

And I'll notice that all of the sudden something has happened to somebody else, some blessing fell upon them. And then I'll see this little sinister reaction, "why did they get that attention or that--" "how come they published their article. I sent them an article, they never published mine." Instead of saying--and the Holy Spirit will say, "doug, maybe their article is better. Maybe their article is the one I wanted. Maybe you should be thankful they got their article published.

Say praise the Lord. Be happy for them. How come you're thinking about yourself? Are you jealous?" "Well, thank you Lord." And so you've got to--you've got to work on yourself, 'cause it's always there. Now I'm fessing up. Am I alone? Or do you all find those little--little devils start surprising in your attitudes? Yeah, we all got those hidden horns, kind of pop out when you least expect it.

I heard a story one time, an old--it's an analogy about this hermit, an aesthetic. He was a religious hermit. He lived in the deserts of libya and he was very close to God. And he fasted and he prayed and he was very pious and just thought spiritual thoughts all the time. And all these devils tried to bring about his spiritual fall and they couldn't.

And they tempted him with the lust of the flesh, and they tempted him with the pride. And they tempted him by helping him--making him experience pain. And they just couldn't get anywhere. And they went back to the devil and said, "you know, we just can't get this guy to abandon his faith. He just maintains his purity and his piety.

" And the devil says, "you're methods are too crude." He says, "you don't have to try so hard." He said, "let me try." And the devil went to the hermit, and he whispered in his ear, "your brother was just promoted as the archbishop of alexandria." All of the sudden that serenity and that piety disappeared and a scowl came across his face, because there was jealousy that got to him. Alright, one of the famous stories in the Bible is about Joseph and his brothers. This is the second section in your lesson. Genesis 37:4, I think we have someone ready to read that for us. Why don't you go ahead.

"And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him." You know, I think that's very well put. They "could not speak peaceably." That means even when they tried to fake it and just talk nice, there was a sneer in their voice. You ever seen that before, when someone is forced to, you know, be polite and be cordial. And you can tell they're forcing it. They could not even force themselves to speak.

They were so angry. And you know probably Joseph exasperated things-- or exacerbated things when he told them about his dreams. They already saw all the special attention that dad gave to him. They already knew--now think about why they're jealous. Who was the one wife that Jacob wanted? Jacob didn't want four wives.

He wanted one. He just wanted rachel. He loved rachel. His father pulled his fast one on him, switched rachel and leah on the wedding night. He didn't find out until that wedding with the wrong girl was consummated.

Then he's forced to marry leah in order to get rachel. And then when they couldn't have baby boys fast enough, rachel talked him into sleeping with bilhah. And then later leah says, "well, two can play that game." And she talked him into sleeping with her handmaid, zilpah. And he ended up with four wives. He just loved rachel.

Finally rachel was barren. Finally he prays; rachel has a son, Joseph. The Son he wanted with the wife he loved, and so dad made the mistake a lot of dads make. And this happens in blended families where there's step-children or half-children, preferential treatment. I'm just wondering, how many of you would be willing to admit.

Get a camera shot ready. This is going to be a study. We're going to do a very scientific survey right now. Participate--first of all how many of you have siblings? Raise your hands. Okay.

Good. Got you started, participation. How many of you thought, whether it's true or perceived, that one or both of your parents showed preferential treatment? Let me see your hands. I thought that. Of course my brother had cystic fibrosis, so he sort of needed preferential treatment.

Then I have a step-brother, and naturally his real mother gave him preferential treatment. It's kind of hard to avoid those things, but it happens. And so how do you think Joseph's brothers felt when now he says, "I've had a dream." And he was so innocent, and he didn't realize, "yeah, you want to hear my dream? It was really interesting. It was very vivid. It was like a vision from God.

I saw you're all bowing down to me." Then he comes to them the next day, he says, "I had another dream. You want to hear it? The sun and the moon and the 12 stars were bowing down to me. Wow, it's very interesting." And they're just going, "oh man, you know." And then dad says, in front of the whole camp fire one night, he says, "hey, I've been weaving this beautiful coat from the finest lambskin and I died it with many colors. And there's only one like it. I'm going to give it to Joseph.

" Now the other brothers believed that the first born son, which is ruben, is supposed to get a double-portion of their father's inheritance. They're beginning to think Joseph's probably going to get the firstborn inheritance. So they got all this stuff going around in their heads. Can you understand why they're jealous now? Joseph never really did anything wrong that it tells us. Oh well it does say--it says he brought their evil deeds to his father.

Yeah, that wouldn't help, would it? The boys were, you know, they'd be out camping. And as boys often do, they were cutting up and doing things, and you know they're not supposed to be throwing the sheep around like that. And playing--doing these mean things to the goats and tying their tails together. And they were doing this stuff and Joseph would go tell on his brothers. And then Jacob would chastise them.

And "Joseph told me what you're doing." So what do you think they thought of Joseph when he gets his preferential treatment? They had--they couldn't stand him. Jealous. So someone said when you've got jealousy, jealousy becomes the great exaggerator. There might be something real, but what jealousy does, it inflates it artificially. And all you can see is that thing that they've done that bothers you.

And you know what I've observed? If a man ever does flirt when he's married, flirt with someone else, or heaven forbid he ever violates the marriage and commits adultery, and he and his wife are reconciled and they stay in the marriage, what is her attitude any time he shakes hands with another woman in that range? Suspicious, watching, "is he going to flirt? What's that? Oh, I saw that look!" Everything gets exaggerated from then on the rest of their lives. "How come you're late today?" "Oh, I had extra work." "Uh huh!" Sniff their collar. Jealousy becomes the great exaggerator. And it just, it makes everything much worse. It's really a form of selfishness, isn't it? That wrong kind of jealousy, clinging to that attention.

Exodus 20:17, now somebody has this, but we already touched on it. Oh, hand over here. Let's get set up. This of course is in the Ten Commandments. This was written with God's own finger.

And so deserves our special attention. Hang on one second, looks like they're still setting up for that. And someone else get ready with Genesis 50:15. Who has that one? Alright, get a microphone up here. Hold your hand up.

Alright, go ahead, read for us Exodus 20:17. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." Alright, suppose your neighbor is having a garage sale, and you go to his house and he's selling things from his house. And you see something there among his treasures that catches your eye. And you say, "I want that." Is that a sin? No, he's selling it. So it's not talking about your neighbor having a car out front or having a "for sale" sign on his house, and you're saying, "you know I like that house.

It's a nice house. I'd like to buy that house." It's wanting something that belongs to somebody that they're not selling and not being satisfied. Covetousness really is not being satisfied with what you have. Paul said, "I have learned to be satisfied in whatever state I am." I've learned to be content in whatever state I am. Covetousness is really a state of dissatisfaction with what you have, and wanting something that really belongs to somebody else.

But is it appropriate then to be jealous if somebody wants what is rightfully yours, like your spouse? Is that appropriate? Oh yeah, I'd be--i'd be jealous. Maybe I should ask who wouldn't be jealous if your spouse was spending their time and giving their attention and affection that belongs to you to somebody else? Wouldn't that hurt? Yeah, because you've entered into a covenant where you are not your own. You belong to each other. And so there's a violation of ownership. Someone is coveting what is yours there.

That is wrong. You're right to be offended. You're right to be jealous about that. Does God guard his own? In the sense that God watches over his own, are you glad for that kind of jealousy? Does God want to protect you and defend his people? Does he say through the history of Israel that he's going to guard his nation when they're keeping his covenants? He'd protect them. He'd guard them.

You're thankful for that. And so that's an emotion that's appropriate. But it's when you're jealous for yourself in that you're not getting the attention that isn't yours, or that someone else is getting it and you resent it. And that's destructive. Alright, what did I say? Genesis 50:15, you got that right here, mike? Genesis 50:15, "when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, 'perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.

'" Matter of fact, jump ahead. Read verse 17 too. Verse 17, "thus you shall say to Joseph: 'I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you. Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.' And Joseph wept when they spoke to him." After Joseph had forgiven his brothers for their jealousy and everything they did, and they thought now that dad's dead he's going to get even, when they came to him and they said, "please forgive us," years later, why did he weep? Because they had been living with the guilt for years and they didn't believe he had forgiven them. When Jesus says that he forgives us, and we live with guilt for what we've done in the past, and then we ask him again to forgive us for the same thing, does he weep? Does he think, "didn't you believe all those years that I forgave you?" Joseph wept.

See Joseph had tested them years earlier. Why did Joseph go through that whole charade of pretending he didn't know who they were, of making them bring their brother Benjamin, of giving Benjamin extra portions, of giving Benjamin the silver cup, and then arresting Benjamin? Why did Joseph go through all that? He was testing his brothers to see if they'd grown up and gotten over their petty jealousy. Because Joseph, he knew what they did to him because of the preferential treatment that Jacob gave him, 'cause he was rachel's son. Now the only son of rachel left is his younger brother, and all those years that Joseph was in captivity, he's thinking, "I hope they're not doing this to Benjamin. I hope they're not treating Benjamin the way they treated me.

Oh Lord, watch over Benjamin." And so can you see how he was so concerned about his little brother. So he tests them and he sees they grew up, they cared for Benjamin, they protected Benjamin. Judas says, "I'll even lay down my life for Benjamin. You arrest me, let Benjamin go free." And that's when Joseph finally broke down and revealed who he was. And so it was a test.

Had they gotten over their jealousy? Had they grown up? And when they passed the test, he said he forgave 'em, freely forgave 'em. How does the Lord feel about when there's strife and jealousy among his people? It breaks his heart. Does the Lord sometimes, in the same way Joseph took his brothers through this interesting scenario of circumstances to test him so he could find out what was in 'em, do you think the Lord sometimes does things from heaven circumstantially through providence, create situations? He'll drop a pile of blessings on your neighbor to see: how are you going to act? How mature are you spiritually? Sometimes these things happen, you go, "why'd that happen?" God's saying, "I just want you to see what's in you." He wants to show us what's in our hearts. Now one of the great stories that we've got of course is the apostles. Mark 10:35, I'm just going to read through this one for you quickly.

Are church members immune from these ideas of jealousy? Do we worry about positions and titles and promotions? No, we're Christians. We are all thoroughly sanctified. And those carnal emotions of jealousy or envy, we--no. Far be it from us to think those things. We don't have pride that could be slighted.

Mark 10, "and James and John, the two sons of zebedee, came up to him," to Jesus, "saying to him, 'teacher, we want you to do for us what we ask.' He said, 'what do you want me to do for you?' And they said to him, 'grant that we may sit in your glory,'" when you're on your earthly throne, they're thinking, "one on your right hand and one on your left." Seating was very important. Where you sat meant positions of honor. One of the hardest things at a wedding is to figure where to put all those ornery family members in the wedding seating for the dinner so nobody's going to feel slighted. And you got to put the two together so they'll get along with each other. Weddings are interesting.

"We want to sit on your right and your left." "Jesus said, 'you don't know what you're asking for. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?' They said, 'oh, we are able.'" Now let me stop you here. What was the baptism--? Well, of course there's the baptism of suffering, but it's even more than that. It's a baptism of humiliation and being able to bear it. Here they're wanting positions of honor, and he says, "you're wanting to sit on my right hand and my left hand, but who is that given to? The ones who want the highest position or the ones who are willing to take the lowest position? The very fact you are wanting the highest position means, in my kingdom, you are the most unqualified.

" Isn't that what Jesus said? It's really what he taught. Yeah, in the world success is measured by how many people serve you. But in God's kingdom, success is measured, greatness is measured by how many you serve. Yeah. In the world, proud.

We respect power. We respect a person who is assertive and confident. We almost respect arrogance. We think it's cool. Not in God's kingdom.

Those are the people at the bottom. In God's kingdom, the ones who are the meekest are the greatest. And so the very fact they're asking to sit on the right and left meant they were probably the least qualified at that point. But they learned those lessons before it was over. By the time the Holy Spirit was poured out, what was the attitude? Someone read acts 1:14, who'd we give that to? Got a hand right here.

Microphone? "These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women and mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers." "These all with one mind." Were they clawing and fighting for position anymore? Acts 2:1, before the Holy Spirit is poured out, "when the day of pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord--" what does that mean? It's not talking about a honda, one accord. Talking about they were united. They were no longer striving for position. They had spent days together, praying, fasting, confessing, putting aside their differences. Up until that point, there was strife and division.

They were backbiting and talking. And they put all that behind them. The Holy Spirit can't be poured out until that happens. Someone said, "in jealousy there's more self-love than love." Then you go to the story of Saul, Saul and David. Now Saul started out small in his own eyes.

And when he was small in his own eyes, he was actually spirit-filled. Saul was actually a prophet for a while, humble. He was tall, but God was able to use him. But you know, after David killed--what a difference between Saul and Saul's son. What a difference between jonathan and Saul.

When Goliath came out and mocked the armies of Israel, nobody was brave enough to fight him. I've got a theory I can't prove, but you can't disprove it so I'll share it with you, that jonathan--think about how brave jonathan was. I think jonathan said, "dad, let me go fight him." And I think Saul probably said, "no, you can't. You're the crowned prince. If we lose you, you're supposed to reign after me.

You're my key to the monarchy. You're the only one of my sons who's got the--what it takes to be king." And that was true. It was only jonathan that really would have made a good follower of Saul. And he said, "no, we can't lose you. We got to send one of the common soldiers.

" So David finally comes. He kills the giant. And you know what it says? "The heart of jonathan was knit with the heart of David." Instead of jonathan thinking, "here's this young whipper-snapper shepherd boy getting all of this glory that really belonged to me. I'm the crowned prince. This should be mine.

" Jonathan didn't think any of that. Jonathan thought, "oh, I like this guy. He's got the same love for God that I've got. He's got that same attitude that I can take the giant, if God is with me." And he loved him. He wasn't jealous at all.

Matter of fact, later jonathan says, "look, I know that you've been chosen to king. I just ask that you take care of my family if I'm gone, since God's chosen you, and I support you." What a spirit of humility. His father on the other hand was clawing and selfish and jealous. They came back from battle. David is Saul's armor bearer.

David is Saul's armor bearer. And he sees all these victories that David is experiencing. And Saul resents it. Now come back, 1 Samuel 18:6-9, it says, "and it had happened as they were coming, when David returning from killing the philistines, that the women came out--the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet Saul, with tambourines, and with joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang as they played, and they said: 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

' Then Saul became very angry, for this saying it displeased him; and he said, 'they have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now what more can he have but the Kingdom?' And Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on." You know, from that point on, Saul, he eyed David suspiciously. Everything was exaggerated in his mind. He thought, "he's trying to-- the reason he's so brave in battle is he wants the throne. He's trying to be king.

And I thought I heard a rumor that Samuel the prophet went to Bethlehem and anointed somebody there." And he began to envy and feel jealousy. Several times he became so overwhelmed with the Spirit of jealousy, he tried to pin David to the wall with a great big lance. It would just come over him. And you know, finally it says the Spirit of the Lord withdrew from Saul and an evil spirit--it actually says, "an evil spirit came from the Lord." What that really means is when God withdrew his spirit, he allowed this evil spirit to move in and take over. You know what the Spirit was? That evil spirit of jealousy just consumed him.

Have you ever met anybody that became obsessed so much with jealousy it took over their lives? Somebody said that, "nobody is a more complete failure than the person who begins to not only be a failure, but to resent the success of others." And I've seen it happen in marriage relationships where maybe there's some infidelity. And that's terrible when it happens. But the other person becomes so consumed with it that they are constantly thinking about where are they now and who are they with now. And even if they divorce and their lives have no interaction anymore, the one who felt slighted that was overwhelm with the Spirit of jealousy, just continues to rehearse in their mind how they were slighted. And it becomes a possession.

It's almost like demonic possession, and it ruins them. And you know so that's why, you gotta be careful. You can't say, "well, you know, feeling a little bit jealous is perfectly natural. If you sense that you've got any of that wrong spirit of jealousy, or that selfish jealousy we've been describing, ask the Holy Spirit to help you recognize that. Ask for forgiveness and power whenever it comes in.

And you know how you can get over it? If you're jealous because of the success of somebody else. Pray for them. Ask the Lord to bless them. Thank the Lord. And you know what? It works this way with every temptation.

Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. If you resist that spirit, if you resist that attitude, you kill it. And you can really have the mind and the Spirit of Christ. We don't need to live being consumed with these diabolical emotions. I heard one time in history during the time of the crusades, richard of england and Philip of France went together to battle in the holy land.

Well, it wasn't too far along before the crusaders that went along with him realized that on the battlefield richard was a little more courageous, and he was a little better of a commander than Philip. And that's where he got the name richard the lionhearted if you heard of him before. Well, Philip began to resent it. They had been good friends, fought side by side. But when Philip saw that the men were praising richard for his courage and wanting to fight with him in his battles, Philip became angry.

He went back to France and while richard was still fighting, he invaded richard's country, invaded his territory because he was so consumed with jealousy that he would get that attention. Saul was willing to kill his own people because he was so obsessed with jealousy because of David. When he heard that the priests had shown any kind of favor to David--and this is actually in 1 Samuel 22. This is in "David and Saul's jealousy: part 2," "and Saul said to his servants who stood around him, 'hear now, o benjamites! Will The Son of jesse give you all fields and vineyards,'" son of jesse being David. Will he "make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds?" "I've got the power.

You need to trust me! Follow me!" And here old man Saul is becoming so insecure. "For all of you have conspired against me." Had all of those people conspired him? It had become exaggerated in his mind until he was obsessed with this idea that-- let me stop right here and I'll pick this up in a second. I gotta say something about this. He was imagining a conspiracy that didn't exist. Matter of fact, a couple of times he came to his senses.

He was so sure that David was conspiring to kill him, and it was just in his mind. He was the ultimate conspiracy theory nut. That David once snuck into his camp while he was sleeping. He borrowed his spear and the jug of water that was his personalized jug, probably decorated for the King, snuck out of camp, got up on a hill, called to the King, woke up all the soldiers and said, "Saul, why are you chasing me? Who is telling you that I'm your enemy? I married your daughter. I have nothing against you.

I've never done anything to hurt you. Why do you resent me? What have I done? I could have killed you tonight and look, here's your spear. Here's your jug. I didn't do anything!" I'm paraphrasing. And finally Saul, overwhelmed with the logic of what David was saying says, "I've sinned.

David, my son, come home. Everything's going to be okay." David knew better than to come home. He knew that Saul was very temperamental and volatile and it didn't last. Pretty soon he's hunting him again. David has another opportunity.

Saul actually--you know, what happened is David and all his men are hidden in this great, big, old cavern up in the hills of angeti. Saul's out leading the soldiers, hunting for David, says, "excuse me guys, I gotta go to the restroom." He goes up into the cave to relieve himself. And there, while he's there, David slips up with a very sharp knife. I don't know how he did this without Saul hearing it. And he cuts off a piece of his robe.

His soldiers are saying, "just kill him. Get it over with." He said, "no." Saul goes back out again, David says the same thing. He calls back to him, he said, "my Lord the King." He says, "who's that?" He said, "it's your son David." He says, "you came into the cave." Talk about a humiliating circumstance. He says, "I could have killed you." Who would want to die like that? "I could have killed you. Here's a piece of your robe.

Why are you trying to hunt me and kill me?" That was actually the last time that Saul hunted for David. But he never did get over it. And he just always thought there was this conspiracy. Do we have conspiracy theory people in the church? That they just always want to know. "They're out to get us, probably in this very congregation.

Jesuits hiding! Look at the person next to you. Could be them! They're taking special notes. You think they've had a normal past. They're in the witness protection program. They've been planted by the vatican!" You're laughing because have you met folks like this? I went to catholic school for a little while when I was young.

I've seen on the internet people think I'm a jesuit planted in the church. [Laughs] now I've started a new rumor. Some of you didn't know that! [Laughs] but you know what? Once the devil plants something like that in a person's mind, they start seeing bogeymen everywhere. They think everyone's out to get them, and they become jealous. I know a gal.

She spent a lot of time watching soap operas. And in those soap operas, everybody's always cheating on everybody. Now I don't watch 'em, but I know enough about it to know that. And whenever her husband-- her husband was a good friend of mine. And he and I would be out honest, having a Bible study together.

We'd come home, she'd say, "where were you?" "I was giving a Bible study." "Oh yeah? With who? Was there a woman there?" He said, "no, it's just doug." And she just, her mind got so full of that stuff. And he had never given her any reason. But she had these conspiracy theories going on in her mind all the time. The devil had planted there and it became an obsession, a kind of possession. That spirit of jealousy-- did abel do anything wrong to his brother? Do you know ultimately it was jealousy that killed Jesus? Isn't that right? That's why this is such a dangerous spirit.

The religious leaders, they were proud. They liked the crowds. They liked the chief seats. They liked to hear them say, "rabbi, rabbi." And when they saw the masses, they'd get up and they'd do their prayers in the corner and nobody was there anymore. And they'd, "where'd they go?" Or they'd go to the synagogue to teach, and they were empty.

"Where are they?" "Oh, they're out listening to this carpenter from nazareth. Everybody's gone. Haven't you heard about him?" And they were jealous that the crowds were going after Jesus. You can read this in the Bible. Proverbs--I'm sorry, Matthew 27:17-18, who has that? Got it right here.

Okay, let's just give 'em a second. We need to keep this in mind--matter of fact, I'll read Matthew 12:14. "The pharisees went out and counseled together against him, how they might destroy him." Why? Because the people believed Jesus, and they weren't listening to them. Alright, read for me Matthew 27:17-18. I think we're ready.

Matthew 27:17-18, "therefore, when they had gathered together, pilate said to them, 'whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?' For he knew that they had handed him over because of their envy." Jesus was condemned because of jealousy, because of envy. That's why this--it nailed him to the cross. It's such a dangerous spirit. And so we need to understand that is a very strong human emotion. There's an appropriate place when something is yours and you've entered into a covenant.

Then you should care. But jealousy for what doesn't belong to you is very toxic and very dangerous. I wish we had more time to talk about it. And appreciate your participation today. God bless you friends.

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