The Sermon No One Ever Wants to Hear: Moped of Malice • How Envy is Holding You Back

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

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The Moped of Malice

So, the Moped of Malice. I had so much fun putting together the graphic and the name. I'm not sure it was the wisest title for the message, but hey, the Moped of Malice. I recently went to Italy, and it was incredible. One thing that was just cool about Italy is it's not the USA. It was a pleasant surprise when I arrived. This is different. So everyone always talks about, oh, the food, the food, the food. The food is delicious, but the food is almost a symbol of status and part of rivalry of the regions of Italy. It was really neat. In Rome, big on food, big on freshness. Everything in Italy is fresh, fresco.

And I think that's the biggest thing. Did it taste better? Yeah, of course. But it wasn't the flavor. It was just this unique taste of freshness that I've never experienced before. But in Rome, I got to talk with some chefs that were teaching us how to make pasta, fresh pasta. And they were speaking in a way, again, there's lots of rivalry throughout the different regions of Italy. Friendly, but we are from Rome. We are from Florence, Bologna as such. And they were saying, yes, when you make authentic Roman food, if you will, all of the ingredients need to come from Rome. They all need to be grown here and placed.

I mean, you can get ingredients from other places in Italy. It'll be great Italian food. It just will be inferior if all of the ingredients aren't grown in Rome. And that's really the attitude as far as food throughout all of Italy. So it was really, really interesting. The one thing I did observe about Italians in Rome specifically is these are the best drivers I've ever seen in my life. Best drivers ever. Now, as Americans, we would probably think they're crazy or insane or crazy reckless. No, they just know what they're doing with a vehicle. And all of the laws concerning driving and the roads, they're all suggestions, apparently.

And when you get behind a wheel, you are entering a massive game of chicken. And it's similar to Israel. Like if you're going around the roundabout in Israel, if you ever get to drive, same thing in Rome. It's a game of chicken. So you go as if you're gonna hit someone and if they hesitate, boom. If they hesitate, then you just keep going, right? It's a game of chicken. And the idea is that everyone has a place to be. And if there is an efficient way to get to that place, then it benefits everyone, right? So everyone's crowded, clamped, I mean, that's not part of the road, doesn't matter, just whatever.

And the reason why they have really small cars and such, because of course they're ancient cities with ancient roads, and they really couldn't expand the roads, so the cars must conform to ancient Roman roads. But many people have bikes and many people have mopeds. And they know how to drive these as well. It's amazing. One thing that I noticed is whenever we were at a stoplight, or even just driving down the road, these mopeds, as agile as they could be, would just go to the front of the line. And it's incredible because they would always, I mean, 30 miles an hour, just that far from hitting your car, just precise.

And the rule is no harm, no foul. So as long as you don't hit anybody, it's good. You can almost hit, but it's good. But these mopeds would just go to the front of the line and nobody cared. Nobody cared because it was an efficient way to drive, right? I mean, imagine if a moped was behind a car and then another car. They took their place in line. All it's going to do is back up everybody. It's going to make the line longer, right? So it's efficient for everybody.

The Stoplight

And I made this observation. Wow, what a difference than back here at the States. Because if we're at a stoplight, let's be honest, and a moped or a motorcycle passes us while we are waiting patiently in line for our turn to go—do you get a little irritated? Who do they think they are? That's not fair. They need to get back in line. I thought that was so incredible. As if the moped having an advantage in traffic somehow takes advantages away from me. As if I've lost something because someone else decided not to have air conditioning and not to have airbags and not to have a roof. Someone else made a different choice and they gained an advantage.

And I get upset because I don't have it. I guess that's the lesson. This whole message summed up. Just because someone else has an advantage or gains an advantage or has success or a blessing doesn't mean something has been taken away from you. So why are you getting so outraged or passionate about it? Why can't you be thankful that someone else has an advantage or got an advantage or has a blessing or found success. But no, envy, that's not fair. They don't deserve that. Why? Because I don't have that. And the funny thing about envy is, especially in the biblical use, envy goes far beyond just kind of being jealous and I want that.

I mean, it's part of it. But envy has a desire not simply to want what someone else has, but a desire for it to be taken away from them at any cost when it grows and evolves. Envy, envy, bitterness, malice. It's the core of human downfall, I believe, in the biblical narrative, in the story of the Bible. This delusion, again, that if someone else has something that we don't—someone else has success. I've lost privilege. I've lost status. I've lost my position of power. And so what happens? The things that we build our identity on are threatened. And typically how the workflow goes is, well, they're a threat to me and they need to be leveled down back to where I am.

Not fair, not fair. And so if we had our way, we would force that cocky mopedder, that Vespa villain. We would force them back in line. No! To teach them a lesson, we would make them get to the back of the line. Anyone ever felt that way? Random people in traffic. You create a narrative, and they need something taken away. Why are we so upset that they are going to get to their destination five seconds faster than we are?

Envy

Envy finds itself typically alongside feelings of inferiority. Because when someone else has a blessing, has an advantage in their life, we feel like, again, we've lost something. They are better in some way, shape, or form than me. Sometimes we have feelings of being disadvantaged. Again, that's not fair. It's like our motto in the States for some reason. It's just how we are in our culture. We have feelings of being robbed. Motivations to pursue farce justice the way that we see it. And many times, when we don't address it and we let it fester—motivations to carry out judgment because of our feelings of inferiority and this threat of someone else having something, iPhone, power, house, marriage, whatever.

And so we turn to judgment in the form of perhaps gossip, ill will, sabotage, or even violence. The Bible speaks a lot about this type of envy. Biblical envy is destructive in nature. Some even suggest that envy is the original sin. Adam and Eve were given everything, all of their needs met and beyond, but the serpent sold them something they felt they didn't have—something that God had and that God was keeping from them, the fruit of the tree of determining good and evil. If you eat it, then you will be like God. And so at that moment, Eve saw that the fruit was, what, good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom.

So she took the fruit and gave it to Adam who was standing with her. Some suggest that was the pursuit. She wanted this at any cost, even at the cost of disobeying God. Aristotle, in seeking to define envy, basically said that envy is the causing of pain and distress due to seeing someone else's success. Envy seeks to attack successful individuals and seeks to level them without spurring enviers to achieve anything on their own. Never thought of it that way. Envy is one of those sins that isn't fun. It's hurtful on the inside. It hurts you and them.

Cain and Abel

Eve goes on to have children, two sons, Cain and Abel. And the story is a bit perplexing when you read it, but Abel offered an offering to God and so did Cain. And Abel offered the fat of the firstborn of his flock. Cain offered the firstfruits of the soil. And in the story, God shows favor to Abel's offering, but not Cain's. Abel got something that Cain didn't. Favor from God. And Cain becomes very angry—it says—and his face was downcast. And that's interesting because Cain saw his brother gain God's favor through his offering. And Cain perceives that he's now inferior. There's a limited supply of God's favor, right? And it's going to run out. He doesn't get any. His brother has something he wants, but he does not feel it's obtainable. So not only is he mad, but he's discouraged and depressed. He's sad and angry at the same time that he's been placed in this situation. God even addresses it. He has a pep talk with Cain.

God's Encouragement to Cain

He says, "Cain, why are you angry? What is with all of these emotions that are going on? You haven't lost anything. Why? You haven't lost anything in light of your brother's achievement." And then God encourages him. He says, "Cain, there's some for you too. There's some for you too. Don't you know that if you do right, you'll have my favor? It's here waiting for you." It's like a coach here: "You can do it. You didn't just now, but you can do it. But be careful because if you choose not to do what is right, you are going to invite sin into your home and allow it to have its way with you."

Cain's Choice

So Cain went back and he got close to his brother. He acted friendly to his brother and he invited his brother to go for a walk with him out to the field. And in Cain's mind, Abel needed to be leveled out. It wasn't fair. Cain could not process this new reality he was creating in his head where Abel, his younger brother, was better than him, has more than him, climbed higher than him. So instead of using this envy to motivate himself—emulative envy—he kills his brother. He fixes the problem that is in his world. The irony in the story is by killing Abel and removing the threat of his status, he ends up making his pursuit of success a hundred times harder. The ground that he used to measure his success in the first place that brought forth the offering, it consumed the blood of his brother and it turned against him. Sometimes when you try to sink someone else's boat, you just end up blowing a hole in your own, right?

Envy as a Pattern

Coveting what someone else has. It's one of the Ten Commandments. Do not covet, desire, lust after the blessings, the success, the things your neighbor has in their life because it leads to destruction and death. Envy becomes a pattern of sin, not a circumstance. Pursuit of having more will never bring forth contentment. John D. Rockefeller, one of the wealthiest men probably ever to live, he was once asked, "How much money is enough?" And he's quoted as answering this question: "Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more." When we allow envy into our lives, it does not become domesticated. It spreads. It takes root and it creates patterns, routines. It changes the way that we see the world from a place of blessing and abundance to a place of rejecting gratitude and making our home in discontentment.

Envy Through Scripture

Envy is what caused Jacob to deceive his father so he could have what his brother had—the birthright and the blessing. It caused strife as it went down through Jacob's family. His wives, Rachel, his favorite, wasn't bearing him any children, but her sister Leah was. That's a big episode of Days of Our Lives here in Genesis. Yeah, you can read it. Her status that she found value in was being threatened by what her sister had and was able to do. Jacob had 11 sons and a daughter, Dina, and his youngest, Joseph, at this time was his favorite. Jacob delighted in Joseph, loved him because that's how it works with the youngest. He even made him an extravagant coat, right? Technicolor. Something his brothers became extremely envious of. Their sense of identity, their sense of value, their sense of worth were threatened by their little brother in the favor that their father gave him. So they sold him into slavery, fixed it, right?

Korah's Rebellion

Korah. Korah was a member of the tribe of Levi. He was born in Egypt. But when Aaron was chosen to be the high priest, instead of being happy that someone received such an honor, such a blessing—to be not only the high priest, but to have his lineage go on to become the priesthood, the ministers of the innermost presence of God. Instead of being grateful that he himself still serves in the tabernacle as a Levite, he became envious, he became bitter, filled with malice. He did not like the leadership that God had chosen. So he attempts a coup and he spreads rumors, recruits sympathizers, and he has a vision to take out Aaron. And it ends up costing him his life and the lives of his followers and their family.

Comparison and Entitlement

Envy is also marked by comparison and entitlement. "Wow, that person is blessed. That person got the job, got that house, got that baby, got that spouse, got that car, got that iPhone. That's awesome, right? This is great. What a blessing that they received a blessing." But envy takes another person's blessing and uses it to provoke entitlement. "They got the blessing and I should have. Why don't I have this blessing? Am I not Matthew Vander Els?" Oh, come on, you've totally done that? "I deserve it." Envy to entitlement to superiority and arrogance: "I should have that blessing if they do because, fill in the blank, I'm better than them. I have more value than them. I am more worthy than them." These are common narratives that, whether we like it or not, likely play inside of our hearts and our heads. And entitlement is such a sweet characteristic to consume. It gives you permission to do what we love doing as human beings, which is judge other people without a cause, a case, or a legitimate motive.

The Gratitude Test

It gives you permission to take and consume without self-judgment—entitlement. You see it spring forth in everything from acquiring things in your life to taking people's time. That's one thing I've come to try to recognize even in my own life. You want to test whether or not you feel entitled to things in your life? Yeah. Gratitude test. If you want to test that, how entitled you feel, how grateful are you for the things, people, and relationships in your life? What's that have to do with anything, Matt? It has a lot to do with it because you cannot be grateful for something you feel entitled to. There's your test. That's also how you can judge the integrity of your relationships. If someone feels entitled to your time, entitled to share their judgments and critique in your life, entitled to give you their opinion on anything and everything, entitled to consume your time for their benefit, might be a sign that they're not grateful for your relationship, and vice versa.

The Downward Spiral

Envy is so painful. It hurts. It usually develops and evolves into a habit, patterns, a feeling like a downward spiral of you never being of worth whenever you see someone else get ahead. And before you know it, because of this pattern and routine of jealousy and bitterness, we find ourselves in a place where we devolve into judgmental robots that view everyone who is not just like us as a threat to us. The Pharisees found a system where they sustained their perception of value and status, and it was through turning the Bible into a checklist that only they could keep a certain way to a certain level of integrity. And when people got close, they'd modify it. Wash your hands, right? Make it harder. So we have an elite core group of those who have this higher status power.

Defending a False System

When someone came and threatened their false support system, they were filled with malice and tried to level those people out. Bring them down to where they belong. Because that's what envy always seeks to do: protect our integrity—that fake system of value—from people that we think are threatening it. We perceive someone as better, with more worth, more status, or having an advantage, whatever that would mean—a blessing. And envy tells us that they need to be brought down. You ever had someone that got a new car? You look jealous of it. It's a nice new car. It's good. A little fleeting thought in the back of your head: "I hope they wreck it." Or did that hit home? "Hope they wreck it." Or if they did have an accident and they're okay, "yeah, right?" Because that's what we do. And I feel like we're pretty familiar with that type of thought process, right? And so this person is a threat now because my value is only secure as long as no one is above me—that's the idea.

So what's the process? I tend to become bitter. I begin to yearn. I want and hope for something bad to happen to them or their success or their blessing. They crash that new car. Hope they're okay. Car taken away. Man, perceived status. Others need to be brought down.

Jesus Threatens the System

So there's a story that takes place in the first century in a synagogue, and you have the religious elite there—the teachers of the Torah, the leaders, the Pharisees. And they saw an opportunity to show everyone how a visitor didn't keep their checklist of righteousness as well as they did, right? Because that's the only way to truly reinforce the scaffolding that you stand on in your arrogance and pride—hoarding over others and showing how other people are beneath you in whatever way, shape, or form. And so they chose this visitor to the synagogue. "Hey, it's a tricky one," I said. "We'll trip him up on this: Is it okay to bring healing on the Sabbath day when you're supposed to cease and stop, not work?

The holy and blessed day of God." And that visitor says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can heal. It's completely lawful in the eyes of God to restore, to heal, to make whole human beings because that's the whole purpose of the Sabbath." And then that visitor heals a man there with a shriveled hand. The entire structure that the Pharisees had was threatened because he was now a threat. Matthew says they went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. The Pharisees who sought to manipulate God's word to elevate their grasp at power, they didn't know what else to do. This is how it works. This is the system we built.

The Choice

This Yeshua who has this following that's getting bigger, he's teaching the Torah in ways that actually are applicable when it comes to showing the grace and love of God in the world. He's actually healing people, actually doing miracles—things that we can't do—and they had to make a choice. Let go of needing to feel more valuable than everyone else? Let go of being the judge of others, critiquing everything? Let go of that feeling of entitlement? Would they let go and follow the king, or would they invite sin into their homes and allow it to have its way with them? At Yeshua's trial, Pilate, as was the tradition, had set up a situation where they had Yeshua, Jesus, and another man by the name of Barabbas, who was a notorious criminal, right? Who knows, but a notorious criminal.

And Pilate asked the people, he says, "Listen, which one will you choose?" He could have chosen Yeshua. He could have chosen all kinds of criminals. He chose Yeshua for a reason. And that reason is in Matthew 27, verse 18. Why did he choose Yeshua? For he knew it was because of envy that they had handed him over.

Envy Spills into Violence

Envy. Envy. That's what got him killed. The envy of others. Envy drives evil in the world. And it either comes from a place of feeling like you have no value, again, or a place where you feel entitled to dictate the world's balance of fairness around you. And it grows into malice. And it's always a matter of time before malice spews out, leaks out. It comes in the form of gossip, attempting to tear others down indirectly, or ill will towards a person, or even violence and death as what happens most commonly in world history.

Black Wall Street

In the early 1900s, in 1906, there was a man by the name of O.W. Gurley, who was, along with one other specifically, a wealthy African American from Arkansas. And he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma and purchased over 40 acres of land. Here, he offered the land to Black people who were migrating from the Southeast, from Mississippi, the southern states. And I know this isn't really taught in schools, but the history of African Americans in this country is one of oppression, abuse, slavery. With the end of the Civil War and the defeat, the dissolving of and the exiling of the Confederate States of America, slavery was abolished in the USA.

Kind of. During the reconstruction of the Black community and their place in America, the 14th and 15th Amendments were added. "No state shall make or enforce laws that abridge or cut down the rights of any person, and you cannot limit the citizen's right to life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor can you deny any person equal jurisdiction of law." Oh, and everybody from now on can vote regardless of their skin color or their previous status of servitude. Despite the CSA being abolished, the hearts of the people still idolized superiority based on skin color. The KKK permeated from Tennessee and then throughout the other southern states.

And in 1877, federal soldiers withdrew from the southern states, leaving the 14th and 15th Amendments unable to be enforced. Lynchings became common. Violence became common. Laws were locally passed and social standards set up that began in 1877 and continued to evolve until the 1960s. They were known as the Black Codes. Or, there was a slur against African Americans called Jim Crow, and the laws became known as the Jim Crow laws.

But amidst all of this that's happening, O.W. Gurley took his wealth to Oklahoma and purchased 40 acres of land, which became known as the Greenwood District. And he built a community, a little town, if you will, within Tulsa. It was a city of refuge for African Americans traveling from the South. It became so tight-knit that money started circulating. Wealth started to grow. It became very affluent. It was a spectacle to see. See, because of the tight-knit segregation of this one town that was only African-American within the districts of Tulsa, money stayed in the town or the district. So a dollar bill would circulate 40 to 100 times within this area, within the shops and the hotels and the theater and the cars before it made itself out of the community.

The money stayed in and circulated. Just a booming micro-economy here. It became known as Black Wall Street because everyone lived as if they were on Wall Street. It's a pretty cool, pretty neat story. Again, this community thrived in affluence, wealth, and success. It exceeded the white standard in the rest of Tulsa. There were only two airports in Tulsa, but there were airplanes there. So in this community, six Black families owned planes – to give you kind of a standard. And I think we have some pictures. Do we have pictures? I'm not sure if we threw them in there. Yeah, so here's Greenwood District.

Here's one of the pictures. As you can see, it wasn't just like a neighborhood. Here are some of the residents of Greenwood District. The next one, I guess. Is it the next one? Yeah. Just suits and ties and cars. Success. We have another one, I think. Just there's a color picture. I mean, this was a booming area. And then that happened. And that happened. Yeah, yeah.

The Tulsa Race Riots

That all changed in 1921. There was a 17-year-old white girl who was an elevator operator and a 19-year-old Black man. And something happened. She screamed. He ran away. Don't know what happened. Some people say the accusation was he tried to rape her. Other people or witnesses said he tripped and fell and either grabbed her arm or something and she screamed and he ran away. So people rallied at the courthouse, but before a court trial could ever take place, violence broke out in front of the courthouse between the whites and the Blacks. Of course, who outnumbered who? So the Blacks there ran back to Greenwood District, and the rest of the city followed.

Thirty-five city blocks and the homes around them were razed and destroyed within 24 hours. Residents of Tulsa who had airplanes got in their airplanes, fired rifles from above, dropped firebombs, walked into homes with torches and set them ablaze, shot people in the street, burned people. 300 people died that day. 900 were injured, 9,000 homeless. 1,500 homes were destroyed, something like that. It wasn't just an itty-bitty town. It was all of this for the virtue of a single woman that never even entered the trial. Or... Maybe it wasn't about that. Maybe it was an opportunity. Could a community of people who thought they had more status and value have been swayed by envy of the neighboring community that had more success, more blessings, had advantages?

Maybe they didn't deserve that advantage. They don't deserve to live in such luxury. How come they get to have that but we don't? How do we fix it? Well, the way of Cain. Most people have never heard of what was called for the longest time the Tulsa Race Riots. It's actually the most deadly racial attack, I guess you could say, in U.S. history. But it was called the Tulsa Race Riots. 300 people died. 1,500 homes razed. The theater, the hotels burned to the ground, 24 hours. Most people in Tulsa didn't even know this happened until the 90s. When someone found footage their grandfather had saved and watched it, they thought it was fake.

Nobody knew it happened because one of the biggest tragedies and terror attacks in U.S. history was swept under the rug. In 2002, Tulsa decided to start teaching it in their schools. But even then, no emphasis was given on it. It wasn't until 2019 that they expanded the curriculum to spend more time teaching the kids about the history of the city and the town they lived in.

Overcoming Envy in Our Lives

See, sometimes envy fills the hearts of individuals when they see someone get something new, like an iPhone, get a job, or receive a grant, if you will. Get jealous, get envious. They don't, it's not fair. But sometimes envy fills an entire society, an entire tribe, right? An entire nation. And we need to not ignore the forest for the sake of the tree. And so, how do we overcome envy in our lives? Because it starts here. Well, number one, recognize the reality of what's happening. When you have these emotions, ask why, what's happening, and remind yourself that you might be being sold. Someone may be trying to sell you something.

So many times envy strikes with total strangers. And in today's day and age, envy strikes just because we get on the internet where everybody's a performer now and performing for everyone else, right? So of course we see Instagram and it's depressing because you see all the cool filters and all that. But the media also knows this because our nation thrives on envy. The economy thrives on envy, keeping up with the Joneses. It's how it works. And if I can encourage you to look for one thing, take this message and go with it – recognize that the number one seller in the U.S., the number one product that's sold that we love to consume is outrage.

Outrage. We love it. We love it when someone is outraged. We'll pay attention to something if someone's passionately outraged by something rather than someone who's calm and presenting facts. So the next time you see something on the internet or turn on the TV, if people use TV anymore, if you're getting feelings of envy or that's not fair or judgment of other people and the person selling you the story is outraged, just consider you might be sold something, trying to get you to consume something.

When you see someone and you get these feelings of envy and that's not fair, I want to take that. They need to be leveled. They don't deserve. Recognize that you don't know the whole story. You don't know what someone had to go through to get what they have. You don't know. You do not know. And you probably aren't willing to go through what they had to go through to get what they have. And recognize when you're going down this pattern, this tunnel of envy – recognize you're chasing emotions. Recognize the habits that you have. Acknowledge them so that you can slow down, consider, and reel yourself back.

Another thing you can do, number two, know your value. Many times envy comes from a place of feeling inferior, feeling like you don't have enough, you're not enough, your value is not enough. If other people are above you, it just reinforces the fact that you're not good enough. Envy is an aversive reaction to a perceived inferiority to a similar other, a peer, with regard to a good that is relevant to the sense of identity in the envier. It's relative to you. Envy is rooted in a relative perception of your own value or lack of value. And that really says a lot about the deep core issue with our own hearts—that we feel we need to prove ourselves all the time.

Dads, do you ever feel like you need to prove yourself being a good dad? Prove yourself being a good husband? Wives, I don't know. I know men who prove that you're a good wife. Just always trying to prove why. We have this constant need to reinforce that we're valuable, that we're loved, that we're worthy of being loved, that we're worthy of being accepted. But we do it in a way that compares us to other people, right? Because what else do we have? And so it becomes a game of always comparing yourself to others so that you can affirm that, yes, I do have worth. And this also gives a sense of power and control.

And the problem, of course, with those scales is that as soon as you perceive that someone else has more value than you, your whole identity is threatened. How messed up is that, right? How messed up is that? They got a new car, and now I'm not as worthy of a human. If you get down to it. So I either need to work harder to achieve that status, getting a new car like them, or if I can't obtain the new car, I need to hope they lose their new or worse. I need to go take it from them.

You Were Bought at a Price

1 Corinthians 7.23, a great reminder. To pick a verse out, you were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of people. Another translation is slaves to mankind or the ways of the world. Or the world, if you will. The world, man, you were bought with a price. That price was God making himself known through the person of Yeshua and taking upon himself the sin, the malice, and the envy of the world and dying. Why? Because God so loved, God so valued, God so saw worth in you and the world. You have insurmountable value and worth in the eyes of God. Do not become slaves of man.

Gratitude Dispels Envy

Number three, give thanks. Have gratitude. Thanksgiving's coming up, right? Yay. We got to reevaluate how we give thanks in our life and go around the table. Gratitude dispels envy. Gratitude dispels entitlement. The moment you feel envy, if you're wise enough to catch it, stop and give thanks. Give thanks on behalf of the person that you're envious of. I dare you to try it. Pray for them at the same time. I don't know, Lord, dare you to try it. Dare you to give thanks on behalf of the person that you're envious of. Give thanks for the blessings that God has also given you. Contentment. The cure for envy is being content. And being content is a form of gratitude, by the way. Be happy someone is getting a blessing in their life. Philippians 4.6 says, "Do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, everybody want some peace in their heart, in their minds? The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Where Your Treasure Is

Number four, and there's only five, be generous. Listen, if we want to continue living a life that is based in self-pity or putting yourself down all the time because you cannot quench your thirst for more, quench your thirst for value. And always wondering if you're enough. Live a life that shines God's light and love. Because that's literally what Yeshua commanded us to do. Be the light, be the salt. Show the world God's goodness through your good works. That's what he commands of us. Give to others. Stop believing the Rockefeller lie. If I just keep storing up resources, treasures... and just get a little bit more, then I'll have enough.

If I just get a little bit more, then I'll be generous with my money. If I just get a little bit more, then I'll be doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Rockefeller Law. Now, Yeshua says if you are faithful over a few things, God will give you more to be faithful with. In other words, you got a full cup. Awesome. Why isn't God continuing to pour the water in it? It's a horrible example. Stay with me. It's a full cup. Why would he turn on the faucet? You got to make room. You got to make room. Through the parable, what Yeshua said, make the investments. Do something with the blessing that God has given to you.

Do something with it because if you're faithful over the little bit he's given you and don't just store it up and do nothing with it, making excuses, he will make you faithful over. So be generous. Generosity is also the litmus test for where your heart is. It's tough, isn't it? So if you're struggling to know if you need to make an adjustment of where your heart and your mind is during this season, do an audit of your generosity. And of course, we get that from Matthew 6, verse 21. It's a horrible verse. I don't like it because it hurts. It's horrible to the flesh. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So where's your treasure? Where's the currency produced by your time and energy and focus in your life? Is it sitting in your bank account, not doing anything? Is it going to your hobby, gambling, drugs, alcohol? Where's it at? What are the priorities? Where are you planting the seed? The latest and greatest toys so you can keep up with the Joneses? Envy's expensive, isn't it? Is it going to your church, supporting the very place God is teaching you and your children through its ministries? Is it going toward helping others? This is the compass to find where your heart is. And it's not a compass we like to look at.

Focus on God's Purposes

Five, jump into focusing on what God is doing in and through you and acknowledge where God has brought you from and where he's calling you to go and what mission he's placed you on. Focus on what God is doing and has done in your life. Remind yourself of the goodness of God's mercies and grace and abundance and blessing. Remind yourself of the power and authority in the Holy Spirit, not in the fake reality that mankind tries to sell you. Remind yourself of the reality of what you're participating in right now. Catch the feelings of envy and remind yourself that that's a distraction away from where you're called to be.

There's a New Testament scholar, Tom Wright, or N.T. Wright, and he has a quote here I just loved, and he says this. He says, "Being absorbed in God's purposes for you prevents jealousy of what God is doing in someone else's life." Pray without ceasing. Look at the world through what Yeshua did on Calvary. Understand that you are on a mission. It does not include participating in the dog-eat-dog world of human envy. That is beneath the believer. Because the moment you are envious or jealous, the moment that you decide, I want someone who has a blessing to now be without it, the moment you come to that place, you begin to forfeit a piece of your purpose in Christ.

So don't let the moped cause you malice just because it gets to scoot up to the front of the line. And so I don't know where you're at today besides here, but in your walk with God, spiritually, with your family, with your own well-being. But I hope that God speaks to you through his word. And I hope the Holy Spirit continues to work in all of our hearts so that we can be conformed fully to the image of our King Yeshua as we walk out his calling and mission in our life. And that starts the moment we wake up, the moment we go to bed with every single person that we encounter outside these doors. With every single thing that we do, we see, we hear, we think.

So please stand and join me in prayer. Alvino Malkinu, our Father, our King, Father, we thank you for your gracious love and we thank you for your patience as we continue to walk and navigate this world, as we continue to reach out for the hope that we have in Yeshua and slowly push away and mold our hearts to his. Father, I ask in the name of Yeshua that the Holy Spirit that your word says is in us even right now, that we would get out of its way, that we would allow it to do its work and that we would allow it to manifest your kingdom through our hands and feet, and that it would remove any ounce of envy, patterns, routines that we formed with looking at others and the things that they have, that you would give us a heart of gratitude, of joy, not only when we recognize your blessing in our life, but when we see you working in others and we see the blessing in others. We thank you, Father, in the name of Yeshua, for all you do. Amen.

So you can join us in worship. If you need prayer today for any reason, any situation you're going through, guys, we have a prayer team on either side of the stage, free to take advantage of that. Please join us as we praise our Father for his mercies. Sing the Shema. Shema, Israel. Adonai, Adonai. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all eternity. May the God of patience and encouragement grant you to be like-minded with one another in the manner of Messiah so that together you may be likeminded with one another. With one voice, you glorify the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua, Messiah.

And may the Lord bless you and may He keep you. And may the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up His countenance toward you and give you His shalom and peace. Abba, thank you so much for this day. We love you. May we move forward in you. In Yeshua's name. Amen. Shabbat Shalom. Hallelujah. If this message has blessed you, or if you see God working in and through this ministry, we invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us so that the message of Yeshua and the truth of God's word continues to reach all nations.

Take Part in Our Mission

If you would like to take part in this mission, then you can do so at foundinthetruth.com slash give, or you can scan the QR code on the screen. These offerings go toward providing resources for both our local fellowship as well as our online ministry, but also our many outreach ministries, including our foster care and adoption ministry, local charity outreach ministry, our international online children's ministry, and any future ministries that the Lord would allow us to walk through and walk in to impact the world around us with His love and the love of God. The bold proclamation of the gospel of King Yeshua. We thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you next time. Shalom. Info@foundedintuth.com