24-0811a Transcript

Preacher: Mike Mathis

(1:01) Good morning, everyone.

(1:03) Good morning. (1:05) Well, it falls on me this morning to deliver the message in our rotation. (1:16) You know, there is a saying I heard as I grew up, that you don’t miss the water until the well runs dry.

(1:30) Well, in my case, you don’t miss the power, or the electricity, until the power goes out. (1:43) So, we’ve been waiting for the power to come on, and we’re still looking for it to turn on. (1:56) But, you know, God is eternal, and things are in His hands, so we can get through.

(2:06) As I was growing up, there were times we didn’t have electricity, but there was also a replacement. (2:18) There was these kerosene lamps that we used, but then we had no way of using kerosene lamps or candles, (2:33) because they have a flame, and we’re not allowed to use those there, but we’ve been getting along. (2:43) And I’m going to put a plug in for the management there.

(2:52) The property manager has, on Wednesday, since the power was off, (3:03) has been there every day to make sure that the residents have something to eat, (3:11) for we cannot fix anything for ourselves in our rooms without any electricity. (3:21) Those that use the stove, we can’t do that, because, you know, without the power. (3:31) But with the generator going, there’s a little bit of power for us to go downstairs, (3:42) and then they would see that there’s some kind of meal at lunchtime.

(3:51) But they’ve been there to see that we have something to eat. (4:01) And yesterday, a restaurant from somewhere, I’m not sure, (4:07) donated some food for us for supper. (4:11) A system of pasta with tomato sauce over it and greens.

(4:18) That was pretty good supper. (4:22) And so, you know, the Lord, we go through our times, but the Lord takes care of us. (4:32) But I’m going to be talking this morning about jealousy, or jealous or jealousy.

(4:46) In looking at jealous in the dictionary, according to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, (5:00) unabridged, to be jealous is intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness. (5:11) B, or that was 1A, 1B is to suspect rivalry or unfaithfulness. (5:28) Now what I intend to do, I intend to divide this lesson.

(5:35) I intend, first of all, to talk about man’s jealousy. (5:44) And then I’m going to talk about God’s jealousy. (5:48) That’s going to be tonight.

(5:51) Now if anybody does not realize that God is jealous, they need to read the Bible. (5:58) They need to at least go into Exodus 20 and read verse 5. (6:09) You’ll find out that God is jealous. (6:16) But we’re going to talk about man’s jealousy, first of all.

(6:22) In Proverbs 6, I’m going to read verses 32 through 35. (6:36) And I appreciate the Bible readers, the scripture readers this morning, (6:43) for reading the particular scriptures that they read. (6:49) But in Proverbs 6, we begin with verse 32.

(6:58) Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding. (7:06) He who does so destroys his own soul. (7:10) Wounds and dishonor he will get, and his reproach will not be wiped away.

(7:19) For jealousy is a husband’s fury. (7:26) Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. (7:31) He will accept no recompense, nor will he be appeased.

(7:38) Though you give many gifts. (7:45) There are those times when the spouse will be unfaithful to the husband, (7:58) or it will be the husband being unfaithful to the wife. (8:08) But either way, the husband’s jealousy, you’re just not going to stamp it out.

(8:22) And it says here that his fury is not going to go away. (8:33) But we can see that when one is unfaithful to the other, (8:45) their reproach is always with them. (8:51) But the husband will not accept another’s rivalry.

(8:57) He may not accept the fact that the woman, his wife, is going out with another person. (9:10) And he sees that that is not right. (9:16) And then he himself will go after that person.

(9:21) And it might end up that that one who, as this says, (9:33) that whoever commits adultery with the woman lacks understanding. (9:40) It just might be that that husband has so much anger and jealousy inside of him (9:52) that he takes that person’s life. (9:57) And that’s he who does so destroys his own soul.

(10:03) Even if his life is not taken, his soul is in danger. (10:12) And his reproach is not spared. (10:15) But we can see that the husband’s jealousy is something that is not wiped away.

(10:26) But then there are times when a husband will suspect, (10:35) without any foundation whatsoever, he suspects unfaithfulness on the part of his wife. (10:45) And again, that jealousy that he will have will cause him to do a lot of harm to that woman. (11:01) It might be physical abuse, it’ll be verbal abuse, (11:06) because he’s just suspecting that she’s unfaithful.

(11:12) But then jealousy doesn’t keep itself within between a husband or a wife. (11:26) It can go to other things. (11:33) For instance, it can be those that we work with.

(11:42) Notice what this says. (11:44) Wrath is cruel, and anger a torrent. (11:51) Who is able to stand before jealousy? (11:57) Someone at work may be jealous of someone else’s accomplishment.

(12:07) As I heard, when I was working, (12:13) one of the co-workers asked about this one that was made a department supervisor. (12:29) Asked, why is he supervising? (12:38) Because they saw what he was doing, and they made him supervisor. (12:49) I just said, well, they put him in that position.

(12:57) And he was there about the same time maybe he came, (13:03) was there a little earlier or just a little later, I don’t know which, (13:12) than when I started working with that company. (13:18) But there was no need for the look of him because he was made department supervisor. (13:30) But we can see that.

(13:34) People have that jealousy. (13:37) They perceive another doing something and getting the attention that they think they ought to get. (13:48) But when I was working, this one plant manager started having employees of the month.

(14:06) I never did get an employee of the month, but somebody said, well, you didn’t get it. (14:19) And I said, listen, I got a job. (14:27) I’m just glad to be an employee of that company.

(14:32) Whether I got it for a month, it didn’t make any difference. (14:40) I was just glad that I had the job. (14:45) But some people can get better.

(14:47) Well, I should have gotten it. (14:50) I should have gotten that. (14:53) But no, I wasn’t that way.

(14:58) I had a job, and that was just my feeling. (15:03) But there are others that feel differently. (15:07) They feel jealous.

(15:08) They feel like, you know, somebody else is getting ahead of them and such. (15:17) And you do the best you can at the job that you do, and that’s all that the supervisors are looking for. (15:33) Just, you know, do the job.

(15:37) It may not be the best, but you do it, and they take notice of it. (15:44) But now we’re going to look at three characters in the Bible that we want to look at what happened to them between them and God and the brothers and such. (16:08) We’re going to look, first of all, Cain and Abel.

(16:14) Now, these brothers, Cain and Abel, it says that Eve, then she bore again this time his brother, that is, Cain’s brother, Abel. (16:35) Now, Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. (16:42) And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.

(16:55) Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat, and the Lord respected Abel and his offering. (17:16) But he did not respect Cain and his offering. (17:23) And Cain was very angry, and his confidence fell.

(17:31) So the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? (17:36) And why has your confidence fallen? (17:39) If you do well, will you not be accepted? (17:45) And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. (17:59) Now, Cain talked with his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him. (18:15) So I want us to look at what we find.

(18:20) These two brothers came to worship God. (18:31) One’s sacrifice was accepted, and the other’s offering was not. (18:40) But look at what happened here.

(18:43) The one, that is Cain, whose offering was not accepted, he became very angry. (18:55) You know, when a parent would give a child something just to be given that child whatever, (19:10) that child simply just might get mad, and will get angry, and will get sad and pouty. (19:26) Oh, you gave him or her something, you gave them a gift, and you didn’t give me one.

(19:37) There’s the seed for jealousy, and there is Cain being brought up. (19:44) You accept Abel’s, and you didn’t accept mine. (19:48) You know, I should get recognized, because I worked with the Klans.

(19:54) I should have gotten accepted. (19:59) And then he would go off, and you know, the sibling that feels like they should have gotten a gift too, (20:13) will go off and have their face down and pout, because they didn’t get what their brother or sister got. (20:30) Well, this is Cain.

(20:35) My offering’s not accepted, but you accept Abel’s. (20:41) But then the Lord counsels him. (20:46) Says, why are you angry? (20:51) You know, there shouldn’t be this getting angry, and there shouldn’t be this as if he’s pouting, you know, (21:02) because his wasn’t accepted.

(21:06) But he says, God tells him, if you do well, will you not be accepted? (21:16) You know, to do well is to do what God wants you to do. (21:24) And Abel did what God wanted offered to him. (21:31) And Cain just brought the fruit of the ground.

(21:39) But you see what happened because of the reaction that Cain had? (21:48) Possibly this feeling about his brother caused him to rise up and to kill his brother. (22:08) He furthered his sin by adding another. (22:18) He didn’t offer what was pleasing to God, and that was rejection.

(22:26) God rejected it. (22:28) We don’t worship as God wants us to worship and how He wants us to worship. (22:37) Then we’re going to be in trouble with God.

(22:42) And then we get this bad feeling because we are accepted or somebody else is accepted and I’m not. (23:02) But we shouldn’t feel that way. (23:07) We should have an attitude that we’re going to do what God wants us to do.

(23:17) Now, let’s look at some other brothers. (23:23) And this is from Genesis 37. (23:29) And I’m not going to read all these verses that I have here, (23:35) but we know that if we’re familiar with this story, (23:46) that Jacob loved Joseph more than he did the other children (23:58) because Joseph was the son of his old age.

(24:06) And also he made him a tunic of many colors. (24:14) And when his brothers saw that their father loved them more than all his brothers, (24:21) they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. (24:28) Now, Joseph had a dream, and this is what furthered their hate toward Joseph.

(24:42) And we could call this, you know, the jealousy, (24:45) that these dreams that he told them caused them to even hate him more (24:53) because in these dreams, it was as if the meaning of those dreams meant (25:01) that they would fall down and be worshiping Joseph. (25:09) And one of those dreams, he told his father even, (25:14) and even his father rebuked him and said to him, (25:21) What is this dream that you have dreamed? (25:24) Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you? (25:33) So their interpretation of these dreams that he told them (25:39) indicated that maybe someday they would be falling down before Joseph (25:52) and they said, Shall we do that? (26:00) Well, if we’re familiar with the story, (26:04) they are jealous of his attention that he got from his father. (26:12) And then these dreams even caused even further hate.

(26:19) So when Joseph was sent by his father to find out how they were doing, (26:26) they saw him afar off and there was a plot to kill him. (26:32) One of the brothers wanted to spare his life. (26:36) They put him in a pit.

(26:38) But while he was away, (26:43) these other brothers sold him to a band of Ishmaelites that came by (26:52) and these Ishmaelites took him to Egypt. (26:58) But we’re going to see that that’s what happens (27:02) when you get this jealousy and this hate toward another. (27:11) There’s a device of thinking of some evil.

(27:20) We’re going to think, Ah, we’re going to get evil with them. (27:25) But they thought evil toward him. (27:31) And so, and it’s interesting, we got a question about what these brothers thought about (27:40) or felt about Joseph when the father died.

(27:48) That’s in a different, that question has to be answered. (27:59) Now, we’re going to turn to 1 Samuel 18 and look in at verses 6 through 8. (28:18) Now, it happened as they were coming home (28:22) when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistines (28:30) that the women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing (28:37) to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. (28:50) So the women sang as they danced and said, (28:54) Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.

(29:02) Then Saul was very angry and the saying displeased him. (29:12) And he said, (29:13) And to me they have ascribed only thousands. (29:24) Now what more can he have but the kingdom? (29:31) So Saul eyed David from that day forward.

(29:42) Now, before this happened in the previous chapter, (29:51) Saul, or rather David, defeated Goliath. (30:00) And he killed Goliath with a stone. (30:10) And therefore the army of the Philistines was defeated.

(30:17) So what David was set now to do is to show that God is the deliverer. (30:27) There he is young. He’s just a young lad.

(30:33) He couldn’t even use the armor that soldiers use when going into battle. (30:43) So all he had was a slingshot and a stone. (30:48) And he used that slingshot to defeat the giant.

(30:58) And this is what he meant to do, was to show that God is a deliverer. (31:08) And he made God the one who delivered him from a bear and a lion. (31:23) That he was able to kill the bear and the lion.

(31:29) And he said, God made me able to do that. (31:35) And even then he said, well the same thing can happen with this uncircumcised Philistine. (31:44) And that’s what he showed.

(31:46) But then the people come out making merry because of their victory over the Philistines. (31:57) And then in the song that these women were singing, Saul had slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. (32:10) Well that made Saul angry too.

(32:14) And that made him jealous because they were giving David more credit than King Saul. (32:26) And from that day forward he kept his eye on David. (32:35) And if we’re familiar with the relationship between David and King Saul.

(32:42) Saul made his attempts to get rid of David. (32:48) And even threw his javelin to the wall. (32:54) In order to pin David to the wall.

(32:58) But David was able to escape it. (33:01) And over time he went out to get David. (33:08) So he killed David.

(33:09) He looked upon David as a rival. (33:15) That brought about the jealousy. (33:19) And I know a couple of times that I can think of.

(33:27) That Saul was there and David had the opportunity to do to him whatever he wanted. (33:39) Saul was coming after you to destroy you. (33:43) Now you’ve got opportunity.

(33:46) But David wouldn’t do it. (33:48) He recognized King Saul as being God’s anointed. (33:55) Now David was anointed as king.

(34:01) But he didn’t take kingship until after Saul and his sons were killed. (34:14) But you see Saul was jealous of him. (34:17) He saw David as a rival.

(34:22) And so that brought about jealousy between Saul and David. (34:32) But God was with David to deliver him from King Saul’s hand. (34:41) But jealousy will cause one to look upon another as rival.

(34:52) And cause one to devise any kind of evil. (34:58) Just to, in that person’s mind, to take care of their rival. (35:09) Or their supposed rival.

(35:13) One can just suspect that it’s a rival. (35:19) And you know King Saul thought David was his rival. (35:23) But David, as I said, you know on those occasions that David had a chance.

(35:32) He would not harm King Saul. (35:37) Now when we go around in life we ought to have the feeling that the things that we do. (35:53) Someone else just may get a promotion or something that we think we may deserve.

(36:07) We ought not feel jealous toward that person. (36:14) You know we can do what we can do. (36:20) And we get in our positions that we get into.

(36:26) We ought to look at it as we’re a team. (36:32) And no matter whether we’re getting somebody’s attention or not. (36:38) We ought to work as a team.

(36:41) We’re just another person that’s working. (36:45) You see, just the way I thought when I had that job. (36:51) I had the thought that anytime, even though I showed up and I did the best I could.

(37:00) The things that they wanted me to do. (37:04) I still would be told, we don’t need you anymore. (37:13) But fortunately I was able to retire from that job.

(37:19) And I just believed that God was the one that led me to that job. (37:26) So let’s not have this jealousy toward another. (37:34) As it says in that one verse.

(37:41) Who can stand before jealousy? (37:45) In Proverbs 27. (37:48) It destroys the one to whom someone feels jealous. (37:55) And it destroys the person who is jealous.

(38:01) It feels that way. (38:05) Because we as men can let our anger get the best of us. (38:16) And we do evil.

(38:19) So let us keep jealousy down. (38:23) And let’s know one thing. (38:25) That Christ died for all.

(38:29) He didn’t die just for one person. (38:32) Or two. (38:33) Or three.

(38:34) Or for special people. (38:36) He died for all. (38:41) So why should we be jealous toward another? (38:48) So seeing that Jesus wants any one of us to do what he wants us to do.

(39:00) Either to be saved or to stay saved. (39:08) We do it because of him. (39:12) It is Christ who loves us.

(39:17) And it is us that he is looking for us to obey him. (39:28) So to be jealous, it has no room within the church. (39:37) Sometimes I’ve seen that attitude out of some people.

(39:44) But I have tried not to have that myself. (39:49) But to know that as God put them, he put me. (39:59) So jealousy should not be there.

(40:03) So if you’re one who needs the invitation to come. (40:10) To make Christ your savior. (40:16) We can assist you in obeying him.

(40:19) Or if there’s any other need that you have in any way. (40:24) The gospel invitation. (40:27) Why not come now? (40:28) While we stand and while we sing.