Envy and Gratitude

Here is the auto transcript from this week’s sermon on the Envy: Abstinence is not deliverance

Now, good morning.

That's electricians.

Normally, everything's off and then we turn it on so we have the power, right?

All right.

Hope everybody's having a great day, a great Shabbat.

My name is Michael Stolesworth and Chris and April were scheduled to be out of town, so he called me two weeks ago and asked me if I would continue in these uplifting series.

The seven deadly sins.

So he said the topic was envy and when I hung up the phone, I told Delilah, I go, "Huh, envy.

I don't know a lot about envy because I don't think I have a problem with it."

Maybe I need to go back and listen to Chris about pride, right?

Okay.

So, we kind of just discussed for a few minutes while we were kind of on the couch and talking about envy and I said, "Well, what experiences of envy have we had in our lives?"

And my thoughts were envy is something that I was wanting something that somebody else had.

And today, I can honestly say I don't know that I struggle with that.

But as we began to talk, I realized that I think I had a lot of envy when I was in high school.

And then I figured out after high school, I think I started dealing with envy because of my occupation versus my buddy's occupations.

One of my, you know, I was working for a place called Otis Spunkmeyer Cookies.

Anybody ever heard of Otis Spunkmeyer?

Well, they're fantastic.

They will put calories in you very quickly.

Don't suggest that.

But from there, I will say this, God always provided for Delilah and I.

We got married, like I was like two weeks, 19 years old.

All I wanted to do though was get married to Delilah.

And so, with that, we just kind of progressed through life.

But I think looking back and being honest with myself over the past two weeks, I was like, yeah, there was times when we went to, you know, we'd go to class reunions and this buddy of mine, he's flying military jets for the Air Force.

And this guy owns a company and this guy owns a company.

And soon, I think I start trying to measure myself.

Oh, Mike, what have you done?

What have you accomplished?

What, you know, what do you have?

And I think understanding and studying Envy has helped me over the past two weeks.

It's certainly given me a broader understanding and some things about Envy and how it affected our future.

And I want to share that with you guys today.

So Chris wanted me to kind of recap the seven deadly sins because this is the last of this.

And the timing, I don't know if this was planned with Brent and Chris.

I don't know if the timing just before Passover, just before Pesach is to where we study these seven deadly sins.

At this time of the season, we're supposed to be purging out the leaven within our houses.

We're supposed to be getting rid of all the chametz, the leaven.

And the idea spiritually is that we're cleansing out your soul or what I like to call my house.

I believe that Brent brought this up at the teaching Passover.

I believe that we are a temple of God.

I believe that we are a temple of God, that we were designed to be a vessel to house the living God.

And what's interesting is the only circumstances where He can come and dwell in you, and when I say dwell, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High God is if we are rid of the things that defile us.

And so at the time of Passover, this idea of us cleansing out the house is also a spiritual implication of us getting rid of anger, pride, greed, gluttony, all those things that have come into our lives and sometimes chase off the Holy Spirit.

Now when I do a teaching, my focus is how does it change my life?

If today, if the message today ends up changing your circumstances and the way you view things, praise God.

But I'm going to tell you right now, already studying and learning about envy over the past two weeks has really had a pretty good impact.

The first of the seven was pride.

I'm just going to give you the quick definitions of these seven, and then we'll move on to envy.

Pride is arrogant or disdainful conduct or haughtiness.

Lust is an overwhelming desire or craving.

Lust can be both sexual lust or power, your lust for power.

We don't have that in America, do we?

We don't have this lust for power.

Greed, a selfish desire for more than is needed or deserved.

I think we all have experienced greed in our lives where it just doesn't seem to be enough sometimes.

Gluttony, excess in eating or drinking, greedy indulgence.

All right, laziness.

Laziness, one of the seven deadly sins, is not willing to work or be energetic.

I need to become more energetic.

Anger is a strong feeling of displeasure or hostility.

By the way, did the father experience anger?

Some of these things turn into sin, but aren't necessarily sin.

Our father, we're going to read a scripture today where he was angry.

And finally, the one that we're going to discuss today is envy, a feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with the desire for the possessions or qualities of another.

So, the question is today is what is envy?

What have we learned?

Envy is a stingy and demanding master.

It is stingy because unlike many other sins, there's absolutely nothing pleasurable about experiencing envy.

Other sins bait the hook.

Lust offers excitement and escape.

Greed promises wealth and pleasure.

Gossip, what does gossip promise?

Gossip promises power and participation in the inner circle.

You get to feel part of the inner circle whenever you're gossiping and talking about others.

Gluttony fills a temporary void.

Gluttony is one that will never, ever satisfy you.

Guiltiness provides the easy way out.

Many sins are at least temporarily pleasurable.

This is why we sin is because a lot of the sins have some sort of a benefit for us.

But with envy, there is absolutely no upside, not even a small temporary guilty pleasure.

No one ever said, "I want to have envy."

No one consciously plans or schemes to envy.

We feel envy in spite of ourselves, even though we don't want to feel envy.

Envy is something that happens just like that.

And envy then has the tendency to begin to fester and grow.

And it festers and grows inside your mind.

And when it festers and grows enough, then envy then makes its way down and begins to take hold of your heart.

And then eventually, envy will give birth to something that expresses itself on the outside.

We're going to call today, the envy is the unsought sin.

It's also very demanding.

Although it delivers absolutely nothing, it requires very much of us.

It can absorb and dominate a life.

It can poison pleasures.

It can steal your joy.

It can also waste your time.

How many of you guys have time to worry and think about being envious?

I don't.

It can poison pleasures, steal your joys.

Envy can make a blessed life feel shabby and inadequate.

It's interesting, you could be a person that has so many blessings in your life, yet someone comes along and either what they possess, their financial or their attributes or whatever it is about them, you tend to leave and forget about the blessing that's happening in your life and now you want something that you don't possess.

It is in fact one of the sins that presents the most obvious affront to the sovereignty of God.

Envy questions God's plan.

Envy questions God's choices and goodness.

Envy in itself is rebellion.

What is rebellion?

In Exodus, we have the 13 attributes of God.

And in those attributes of God, it says that God is the forgiver of sin, He's the forgiver of iniquity, and He's the forgiver of transgression.

So what sin in the Hebrew is "chata'ah," iniquity is "avon," and transgression is "pashay."

Okay, so sin is when you do something that is against the Torah, but you've done it in an accidental way.

Iniquity is when you do something against the Torah or sin and you know that it's wrong, but you still did it.

So what is transgression?

What is rebellion?

It's when you live in it and you constantly live in it, you know it's wrong, but it's something that you wallow in and you live in on a continual basis.

This is what sin is.

I want to read something to you real quick out of Psalms.

I know I'm kind of jumping the ship here for just a second, but it's very good.

Psalms 32, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and whose spirit there is no deceit.

When I kept silent, my bones grew old, my groanings all the day long.

For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.

My vitality was turned to the drought of summer.

I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I have not hidden.

I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin."

We are going to look at a couple of different stories and I want you to bear with me as we're going and reading through some of these.

But right now, let's open in prayer and then we're going to get started this morning.

God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Father, there's none like you in all the earth.

Father, your word teaches us.

It transforms our lives.

Father, you tell us to transform by the renewing of our mind from your word.

Father, you tell us not to conform to the patterns of this world.

Father, may today we understand, may the word envy in our lives be understood for what it is, how it affected the crucifixion of our Messiah, how envy is an enemy to our well-being.

Father, open up your word to us.

Teach us, Father.

There's none like you.

And we ask all these things in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua.

So, here's the question.

How does envy start?

I was, I got the phone call from Chris, Mike, will you do some teachings?

And we're going to do, we're going to talk on envy.

So Natalie, Natalie did a teaching Passover at our house.

She came in and she said, "Hey, what about the washing of the hands?"

And when she said that, her brother, Charles was in there.

He goes, he goes, "Well," he goes, "You could probably wash your hands at the Passover and show the meaning of it, or you could probably not wash your hands and just pass over it because Jesus and his disciples didn't wash their hands."

And I'm like, huh, I need to go back and read that.

So I started, I started to read that very thing.

And I love it when God starts to open up to me about, either through my wife or through my kids or through other people, starts to give me direction on how to go with the understanding of envy.

And this is what it did.

They took me to Matthew and it's Matthew chapter 15.

We're going to start at Matthew chapter 15.

And we're going to talk about how envy starts or how envy is birthed.

Listen to this.

"Then the scribes and the Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Yeshua saying, 'Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?

For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.'"

The response from Messiah in three.

"He answered and said to them, 'Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?

For God commanded saying, 'Honor your father and your mother and he who curses his father or mother, let him be put to death.

But you say, whoever is his father or mother, what profit you might have received from me is a gift to God.'"

Verse six.

"Then he need not honor his father or mother, thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition."

Hypocrites.

"Why did Isaiah prophesy about you saying," in verse eight, "These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

When he had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, 'Hear and understand.

Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles a man.'"

Then his disciples said something very interesting and I want you to pay attention to this.

Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard you saying this?

Messiah, King of the earth.

Did you know when you spoke that the Pharisees were offended?

He answered and said, "Every plant which my heavenly father has not planted will be uprooted.

Let them alone.

They are blind leaders of the blind.

And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch."

Then Peter answered this and said, this is me by the way.

Then Peter said to him, "Explain the parable to us."

Messiah said, "Are you still without understanding?

Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated?

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man.

For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, fault witness and blasphemies.

These are the things which defile a man.

But to eat with one unwashed hands does not defile a man."

Okay, what's not being said here is you have the scribes and the Pharisees that are the teachers of everybody at this time.

These are the people that know the Torah inside and out.

I've heard that they could even take a pen and drive it through a letter in the Torah and they can tell you what word is on each page of those.

I don't know if that was true or if that's just a myth or not.

I do know this, that they were very learned and they were very understanding.

And when they tried to trick Messiah, because they were curious, they were curious about Him.

They wanted to know more about Him.

They wanted to understand who is this person that all of these people are following.

They wanted to catch Him so that they could reduce Him in their eyes and have the people see this.

And what does He answer them with?

He answers them with authority and direct and it's uncomfortable.

And they're probably, the crowds are probably looking at Messiah speaking to them and they are probably feeling a little bit, I don't know, what do you guys think?

They're probably feeling a little bit insecure based on the answer that they were just given.

I'm going to guess that right now we have the beginning of the birth of envy that is taking place.

They were curious of Messiah and with arrogance sought to discredit Him.

Y'all remember last week when Chris was talking about anger.

He was talking about one of the boys, I don't know if it's Jude or not, but he was saying, yeah, this happened, this happened.

And one of the boys didn't take out the trash and then boom, anger hits, right?

I think it's kind of the same thing right here is that we have the birth of envy now taking place between the scribes and the Pharisees and who the Messiah is.

The scribes and the Pharisees were offended.

We're going to look at John chapter 11 verse 47.

And in the quiet, John 47 through 53, 11, 47, then the chief priest and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, what shall we do?

For this man works many signs.

If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and the nation.

What are they worried about?

They're worried about losing their foothold.

They're worried about losing their place.

Do you see where this is a recipe for envy to continue to fester and to continue to grow?

They are full on envious.

How do we know that this is envy?

I'm glad you guys asked.

We're going to go to Matthew chapter 27.

And I didn't mark that one, so it's going to take me just a second.

Matthew chapter 27, verses 1 through 18.

I would never be any good on the radio, I'm telling you that right now.

Matthew 27, 1 through 18.

When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Messiah to put him to death.

When they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor.

Then Judas, as a betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the priest and the elders saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood."

And they said, "What is that to us?

You see to it."

Then he threw down the pieces of the silver in the temple and departed and went and he hanged himself.

But the chief priest took the silver pieces and said, "It's not lawful to put them in the treasury because they are the price of blood."

And they consulted together and brought with them, bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in.

Therefore the field has been called the field of blood to this day.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, "And they took 30 pieces of silver, the value of him who was pierced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, and gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me."

Now Yeshua stood before the governor and the governor asked him saying, "Are you the king of the Jews?"

Yeshua said to him, "It is as you say."

And while he was being accused by the chief priest and the elders, he answered nothing.

Then Pilate said to him, "Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?"

But he answered to him not one word so that the governor marveled greatly.

Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner from whom they wish.

And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called, what?

Barabbas.

Therefore when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Yeshua who is called the Messiah?"

For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy.

There it is.

Barabbas Pilate knew that the Pharisees had handed the Messiah over right here in verse 18 because of envy.

Envy started and grew and festered and has now come to a place what is giving birth to other sin.

While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, I'm telling you guys, you need to listen to your wife sometimes because sometimes she's connected to the Ruach HaKodesh when you're not, okay?

While he was sitting on the judgment seat, we're talking about Pilate, his wife sent to him saying, "Have nothing to do with that just man for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him."

But the chief priest and the elders persuaded the multitudes that should ask for Barabbas and destroy Messiah.

The governor answered and said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?"

They said, "Barabbas."

Pilate said to them, "What then shall I do with Messiah or Jesus who is called Messiah?"

And they all said to him, "Let him be crucified."

We think of this story at the time of Passover every year.

We think about his death and his resurrection.

We think about the lamb that was slain.

We know that over 30 times in the New Testament alone that the term lamb of God is in reference.

The governor said, "What evil has this man done?"

But they cried out all the more saying, "Let him be crucified."

See, now it didn't matter if they had evidence against him or not.

What matters is that their envy had taken over and it had grown into something that created hate.

It created animosity.

It created some lack of control over themselves.

When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that the Talmud was rising, he took water and he washed his hands before the multitude.

And he said to the multitude, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person.

You see to it yourselves."

And one of the most powerful verses in Scripture is this, when the people cried out to Pilate, and all the people answered and said, "His blood be on us and his blood be on our children."

Isn't that incredible?

That they didn't even realize what they were asking for here.

That the blood, the guilt of crucifying this man would not be on anyone but them and their children.

The Scriptures tell a story in the Old Testament.

And then conversely, you'll see something in the New Testament where it almost seems like a shadow or a picture.

In the Hebrew, we call it "rimez" when one thing happens here, but you mention this to bring life to another part of the Scriptures.

And in some of the things that I've been reading, this also came from my son Charles.

He was telling me that he's reading this book and he said, "You know, there's this deal about envy between Joseph and his brothers."

And I said, "Really?"

So I started reading and checking that out.

So I want to pick up there.

I want to show you guys in a comparison to what we just read about the Messiah and what takes place.

I want to go to Genesis chapter 37.

So if you would, go to Genesis chapter 37 with me. 37, 1 through 11.

Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan.

And this is the history of Jacob.

Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers.

And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilphah, his father's wives.

And Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a tunic of many colors.

I, we could probably stop right here and have a teaching on, is this right for a parent to love one child more than the other?

It certainly doesn't seem fair, does it?

The reaction in verse four, "But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him."

Now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers.

And what does the Bible say?

That they hated him even more.

So he said to them, "Please hear this dream, which I have dreamed."

Does this sound smart to you guys?

I don't know.

There we were, you know, it's one of those times where you say, "Hey, Joseph, read the room."

Kind of, you know.

There we were binding sheaves in the field.

Then behold, my sheep arose and also stood upright.

And indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.

And his brothers said to him, "Shall you indeed reign over us or shall you indeed have dominion over us?"

So they hated him even more for his dreams and for the words he said.

Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers and said, "Look, I have dreamed another dream."

And they're probably like, "Okay."

And at this time, the sun, the moon, and the 11 stars bowed down to me.

So he told it to his father and his brothers and his fathers rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed?

Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?"

Verse 11, mark this if you would.

And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

His brothers envied him.

This was a growing envy with each of the brothers.

This was growing from just being envious in a slight degree to eventually envying so much that it birthed the thought of murdering their own brother.

Then his brothers went to feed their flocks in Shechem and Israel said to Joseph, "Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem?

I will send you to them."

So he said to him, "Here I am."

Another point in the story that I'm like, "Man, is this a good idea?

They already can't stand him.

Are we going to go now and have him check on them?"

All for the plan and the purpose of God though.

Then he said to him, "Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks and bring word back to me."

So he sent him to the Valley of Hebron and he went to Shechem.

Now a certain man found him and there he was wandering in the field and the man asked him saying, "What are you seeking?"

So he said, "I'm seeking my brothers.

Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks."

And the man said, "They have departed from here for I heard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan.'"

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.

Now when they saw him far off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him.

Then they said to one another, "Look, this dreamer is coming.

Therefore let us now kill him and cast him into some pit and we shall say, 'Some wild beast has devoured him.'

We shall see what will become of his dreams now."

But Reuben heard of it and he delivered him out of their hands and they said, "Let us now kill him."

Then Reuben said, "Shed no blood but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness and do not lay a hand on him that he might deliver him out of the hands and bring him back to his father."

How is this a foreshadow of what we just read?

Just like Joseph, his brothers envied him, just like we read in Matthew.

The scribes and the Pharisees were the brother of our Messiah.

Just like Joseph was thrown into a pit, our Messiah was also put into a tomb.

Joseph is eventual the next to Pharaoh in the entire kingdom of Mitsrayim.

And because of that position that God put him in, he was the giver of the bread of life to all those who were affected by the famine in the land.

It was because of the dreams that Pharaoh had that God interpreted that Joseph was able to save and store up all the grain for all the people that were going to be experiencing this famine.

And it turns out that this was God's plan all along.

Who is our Messiah?

Our Messiah, He is the bread of life.

When we partake of Him, when we partake of the bread of life, we're giving life everlasting.

This time, this season that we're in, as far as Passover goes, they set it a Passover.

I love what Brent said a couple of days ago when we were here in this room and we were doing the Passover teaching.

He said, "Some people claim that that wasn't a Passover.

Some people claim that it was before the Passover."

And I love what Brent said, "Regardless, Messiah called it a Passover and it's good for me."

It's good for me as well.

When we take and partake of the cup and the bread, we do this in remembrance of Him.

Ladies and gentlemen, envy put Messiah on the cross.

Envy was what they gave Messiah up for because of their envy and their pride, their arrogance.

Envy is internal.

It is not in the mind, it is in the mind and progresses to the heart.

Envy, when out of control, makes its way out of the heart and it begins to make itself out of the body.

So we have the idea of envy that usually happens with our thoughts.

And then when envy grows, it enters our heart.

And then when envy comes to a boiling point, it begins to come out.

Now, I'm assuming a lot of you guys here have had the chicken pox in your life, right?

So chicken pox, you remember when you first get chicken pox, it comes with this nasty fever and a lot of aches and a lot of pains.

And then towards the very end of that, what happens?

You start having this outbreak of blisters all over your body.

And that is when the healing is beginning to start because it's coming out from the inside and coming to the outside.

But what it is, it manifests and shows itself when before it was hidden through just fever or through aches and through pains.

I bet some of you all, this is, Delilah will probably kill me later for saying this, but everybody in here has probably got a chicken pox scar, right?

You've got something left over.

If I forget to bring that up again, let me know.

Okay, guess what last week's and this week's Parshah's are about?

Last week was Tazria, this week is Metsura.

So in synagogues all over, they're talking about Metsura or they're talking about infectious disease.

They're talking about skin irritations that are on the outside, on the surface of the skin, and they're talking about infections that are below the skin.

So we have infections on top and below.

Metsura also talks about the mold and the mildew that happens with inside of a home that grows on the bricks or the mortar.

And remember it talks about the color green and red.

I was going to wear a green jacket today, green for envy, but I don't have, I didn't win the masters.

Okay, you guys are just, you guys are hard today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

In last week's Parshah, Tazria talks about, anybody in here doing any weaving, you can raise your hand or anybody online, if you raise your hand online, I won't see you.

In weaving, there's terms that a weaver would use for the vertical threads and the horizontal threads.

And the scripture talks about the woof and the warp, the woof and the warp.

What is the woof and the warp?

I was like, what is the woof and what is the warp?

First of all, when I was reading it, I was, I was saying the word wolf because my mind would not allow me to say the word woof.

So when you're looking in Tazria in Leviticus, it's talking about the woof and the warp or what is the warp?

The warp is the tight threads that are going on the length of the garment or blanket or whatever being made.

The woof is the threads that are weaving in and out of the warp.

So it's weaving in and out.

This is what makes the garment strong.

So the warp is very tight strings.

The woof is very loose.

It's very loose and it moves in and it moves out.

Okay.

What in the world are we talking?

I thought we were on Envy, Mike.

What are we talking about weaving?

Okay, well, I'm glad you asked.

Based on the story found in Numbers chapter 12, the rabbis review leprosy as a sign of an internal decay.

In other words, leprosy was something that could be seen on the outside, but yet it was something of cause on the inside that's creating the leprosy.

Thus the biblical laws on infectious disease, which we're talking about Tazria and we're talking about Metzoha, this became an extended metaphor for self-centeredness.

So when we're talking about skin irritations, we're talking about someone that's self-centered.

We're talking about someone that is critical or slanderous speech.

We're also talking about someone of hateful deeds.

So surface to get under your skin.

When someone is speaking to you and they're speaking to you a certain way, does sometimes their tone or what they're saying to you get under your skin?

And then sometimes what they say is just something that you can just forget about.

We're talking about the woof and the warp.

We're talking about speech.

We're talking about language.

We're talking about when you say something and you hurt somebody, it's called the woof because it goes under and it comes inside and it creates something or an irritation that's happening on the inside.

And what happens to someone that has internal struggle, eventually that comes back out.

So the woof and the warp begin to make its way.

This is the way that evil speech makes its way.

In Leviticus, the law of leprosy is an allusion to the seven traits that the Lord hates.

We're not talking about the seven deadly sins, but we're talking about haughty eyes, a lying tongue.

Okay, so I'm working on this.

We're talking about haughty eyes, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that advises wickedness, wicked thoughts, feet that run eagerly towards evil, a false witness and one who sows discord among people.

How many of these violations pertain to an irresponsible use of language, speaking and thinking ill of another person, constrain their actions in the worst possible way, gossiping and spreading rumors which harm the reputation of another person.

This is called in Hebrew what?

Lashon hara.

Have you heard the term?

Lashon hara.

Lashon hara is the practice of speaking about people as opposed to speaking to them.

When we have a problem with each other, do we like to go to other people and talk about that person?

This is evil speech.

What does Matthew 18 tell us?

Matthew 18 tells us when you have aught with your brother, go speak to him.

Don't go and speak about him.

Numbers chapter 12, the rabbis base the idea of skin irritations and evil speech based off of Numbers chapter 12.

The Merrimanarians spoke to Moses because of the Ethiopian woman that he had married, or he had married an Ethiopian woman.

So they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?

Has he not spoken through us also?

And the Lord heard it.

Now the man Moses was very humble more than all men who were on the face of the earth.

Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, come out you three to the tabernacle of meeting.

So the three of them came out.

I want you to listen to what the Lord says here.

Then the Lord came out of the pillow of the cloud and stood on the door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam.

And they both went forward.

And he said, hear now my words.

If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in vision.

I speak to him in a dream, not with my servant Moses.

He is faithful in all my house.

I speak with him panim to panim, face to face.

Even plainly, I am not in dark sayings.

And he sees from the Lord when, uh, and he sees from the Lord.

And then he says this, why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses, speaking to Miriam and to Aaron?

So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them and he departed.

And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam was leprous, white as snow.

So we have this, we have this relationship between speaking evil speech and a skin irritation of leprosy.

Her skin was, was given to be white.

Even Aaron and Miriam were not above the sin of grumbling.

Aaron was the high priest, right?

He was guilty of grumbling.

Verse 12, one through two relates for a few details about their complaint against Moses.

Apparently they had something against Moses because of the Cushite woman that he had married.

We're not going to get into that.

The Torah does not tell us the details of their gripe, but the people are often, people are often irritated by their siblings, true or false?

People are often irritated by our siblings spouses, true or false?

Okay, everybody calm down.

If you're a sibling of mine or you're a sibling's husband or wife, chill, it'll be okay.

The complaint against Moses had to do with his role as a leader over the assembly.

Both Miriam and Aaron were prophets in their own right.

They had both personally received prophecies from God.

They began to resent Moses.

So they were going to resent Moses, his sole leadership over the assembly.

They asked, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?

Has he not spoken through us as well?

The birth of envy.

Miriam and Aaron assumed that no one could hear their private conversation.

It was their own private gripe against their brothers, but they forgot about one thing.

Brent, you know what they forgot?

The Torah says, and the Lord heard it.

If we go back to parashah today, metzorah, we talk about the green, the mold, the mildew inside the house on the mortar and on the bricks.

This is a reminder to me that sometimes when a husband and a wife go into their home and they think nobody can hear and they begin to murmur against other people that we have this infection taking place.

But guess what?

God hears everything we say.

How many times do we indulge in similar private conversations forgetting that God is listening?

A person should always remember that his words are heard and recorded in heaven.

But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall be given account for it in the day of judgment.

For by your words, you will be justified and by your words, you will also be condemned.

Matthew 12, 36 and 37.

The Lord struck Miriam with leprosy as a punishment for speaking evil speech against her brother.

Moses immediately interceded on her behalf because that's what Moses did, right?

He interceded on her behalf.

The Lord relented and removed the leprosy, but Miriam still had to be put outside the camp for a seven-day period.

And if you go look at this week's Parsha, you can read and understand the relationship between the Kohen and between the person that had the disease or the infection.

It's interesting about this story is Miriam and Aaron both grumbled, but Miriam got leprosy.

And so I'm not going to get into the debate.

Did Aaron have it?

Did Aaron get leprosy?

The Bible doesn't tell us that he did.

So my assumption would be that he didn't.

But I want to read something.

Some of the commentary that I like to read and listen to is from Firstfruits of Zion.

And if you don't care for them, they have a lot of fantastic things.

This was an opinion early in Judaism about whether Aaron did or did not have leprosy.

But in Clement, the disciple of Peter, he speaks this tradition, about this tradition, and he taught that Aaron was also put out of the camp for seven days for leprosy.

Clement says on the account of Envy, Aaron and Miriam had to make their abode outside the camp.

This is First Clement, chapter 4, verse 11.

Worship team, you can come on up.

We're going to close with a couple of things here.

Envy has a way of dominating your life.

Envy does not give anything in return that's valuable to you only other than the circumstances of envy is almost endless to the point of you killing somebody or you destroying someone's life.

Envy is something that we have to deal with it.

First Corinthians, chapter 13 says what?

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not what?

It does not envy.

Love is the key to dealing with envy.

A couple of other things I want to share with you guys that you can do to combat envy.

You can put your focus on God's love for you.

When we're envying somebody else, we're in a position where we're holding someone higher than us because of a misconception.

It's the perception we have when we have envy.

We're holding somebody up higher that they have this gift or they have this job or they have this, you know, they're good looking or whatever it is.

They have this and that perception is that they're up here.

Evil speech, when you talk bad about that person, makes you feel good because then evil speech looks down upon that person and reduces who they are.

Love does just the opposite of that.

When you love somebody, you don't think about being over them.

You think about placing them before yourself.

It also, another good thing to remember is to find your identity in the Messiah.

We don't need to envy others.

Watch them jealously thinking that they have more than what they have it better or that they have it better.

But if you have chosen Messiah or if you had made the decision to do so, all the promises of God in Him are what?

We sing this song all the time.

All of the promises in Him are yes and amen.

Second Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20.

Praise and worship helps us overcome envy in our hearts.

Gratefulness drives away envy.

I love the song Gratitude.

Celebrating the blessings of others.

Celebrating the blessings of others, things that have happened in other people's lives.

This is a wonderful spiritual practice for freeing us from envy.

It also frees us from insecurity.

To be excited for the good fortune and blessings of others.

If you can learn to say yay, when your friends and your neighbors experience blessings, the chances are that you're going to be the next one to experience.

It's not an easy mindset to learn, but when you practice, you can master this.

We have so much less envy when we learn to be genuinely happy for other people.

This last one here.

Giving.

Giving is very much connected with righteousness.

When we give to others generously and out of the kindness of our hearts, it is almost impossible to be envious of somebody.

Something about giving makes us feel strong and satisfied.

If you've ever noticed this, when you give a gift to someone and they're excited or they're delighted in receiving that gift, isn't it fantastic?

Isn't it fantastic to see the look on someone's face when they've received something that they weren't expecting?

It feels good.

It's something that we can practice and we can begin to do more, is to do good things for other people.

I promise you this, in doing good things for other people, you are going to be simply pushing envy away.

You're going to be pushing away those things.

It's important to do so because we don't want the other things that come along with envy.

God will always make you rich enough to be generous at all times, so that many will thank God for your gifts, which is 2 Corinthians 9 and 11.

Today I want to encourage you as you go back through all of the seven sins, the seven deadly sins that you consider, that you consider the teachings that Chris has done, that you go back over those, that you listen to them.

When we're thinking about envy though, just remember this, that this is something that we can overcome with biblical practice, loving each other, giving to each other, sharing with each other.

Hear that common word, with each other.

Okay?

Thank you very much.

We're going to do some praise and worship.

Great are you Lord, this song is fantastic.

Great are you Lord, there is none like you in all the earth.

You're powerful, you're glorious, and Father we give you thanks for just the continued many blessings.

Father, we, we ask for healing for those who are sick.

Father, for Stephen who's in the hospital dealing with, dealing with the brain mass that he has.

Stephen is having, his name is Stephen Gold.

He's having an operation next Friday, so we pray for him.

We pray for Carmen Lawson.

Father, please, please protect Carmen, Father.

Please heal her of the cancer that she's experiencing.

Father, those that have been coughing and being sick for months, Father, we know that you are the healer of all things.

Father, we know that just with the touch of your robe, the tip of your robe, Father, where the tzitzit's hang, Father, that you can bring healing.

Father, there's none like you in all the earth, and we give you praise.

In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua.

Amen.

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